


Badgering the neighbours

by simonsaysyes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Magic AU, Slow Build, Witch!Stiles, teenager!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 19:31:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3085676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simonsaysyes/pseuds/simonsaysyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a Wiccan boarding school near the Hale house. The witches and the werewolves have an understanding – leave each other alone and no one gets hurt. </p>
<p>This arrangement has worked for years - that is, until a new student by the name of Stiles joins the school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ah! Snakes!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my beta Kalyppso ^_^

    Derek was home alone. His dad and Laura were at work. His other sister, Cora, was at school and his uncle Peter was at university. He had never been happier than the moment his uncle had left for university. At least that meant he was no longer around to verbally ridicule him.

    Hence, he was home alone before the full moon. His ability to control his shift and his attitude had gone out the window since the night of the fire. The stupid triskelion talisman was useless. At first, his dad had told him to suck it up and he’d been sent to school in hopes that tough love would force him to regain control but nope. That definitely hadn’t worked. After a couple of fights that ended up with injured humans, his dad opted to keep him home on full moons.

 

    Derek hated himself. Two years! Two years since the fire and he still couldn’t control his wolf. He was seventeen! It was embarrassing. Of course he knew it had to do with his guilt over the death of his mother but instead of trying to talk it out with someone, he did what every broody teenager did and kept it all to himself.

    The teen wolf shoved his face into a couch cushion and screamed. He threw the cushion across the room and growled at it for good measure.

 

    Now that that was out of his system he laid back on the couch and inhaled deeply to try and calm himself down. He bolted upright as he was hit by the unmistakable scent of fear and panic. He inhaled again. It wasn’t coming from a werewolf or a human; there was something off about the scent…a witch. The boarding school.

 

     He ran in the direction of the school. His mind was filled with memories of the fire, the screams of his family as he tried to get everyone out. He crossed the border between the werewolf and witch territory without thinking. When he got to the school, there was no one outside. The scent lead him to the South side. It was coming out of an open window on the third floor. Derek climbed the stone wall and entered through the window.

 

     The young werewolf found himself in a classroom; chairs and tables had been knocked over. Parchment and notebooks where all over the place. It looked like there had been a group of students in the room but all that was left was a tall and gangly teenager standing on a table, drenched in fear and surrounded by snakes.

       Derek let out a powerful growl. The snakes, apparently knowing what was best, opted to slither out of the opposite window.

 

“Are you okay?” Derek asked the shaky teen who had now directed his fear towards him.

 

“P-please don’t eat me!”

 

“What? I’m not going to eat you!” Derek looked at the boy like he was an idiot.

 

At this point, five elder witches burst through the door. Some kind of purple powder was thrown at Derek, who promptly passed out.  

 

Derek was picked up by two of the elders and carried out of the room.

 

“Mr. Stilinski.” An elder scolded. Stiles didn’t dare speak; he followed them out in silence.

 

    A crowd had formed outside the classroom where Stiles and a handful of other students had been using for quiet practice. As Stiles made his way threw it, he heard snickers from the other students. “You’ve done it this time Spark!” Stiles heard one of the students say. He hated the derogatory nickname. It meant that he was from a non-magick family but Mother Nature had seemed fit to give him a spark of magick that could be nurtured into a full witch powers.

 

    Stiles had been so happy when his father had announced that he had found a way to fund Stiles’ spot at the boarding school. His excitement quickly died when he found out he was going to have to survive the school year while being treated like a disgusting abomination by the other students. The teachers were ok but they were extremely strict…there were so many rules…and Stiles had never really been the greatest with rules.

 

    They were led to the summoning room. It contained one large table in the middle of it, which reminded Stiles of King Arthurs round table. The first time he saw it, he had texted his best friend back home to tell him about it but without seeing, it was hard to get on board with the excitement. He missed Scott a lot. At first they texted all the time, but recently, the replies had slowed down. Stiles hadn’t heard from Scott in quite a while. He figured his best friend was too busy with his new best friend, some douche by the name of Isaac.

 

The elders unceremoniously plopped Derek on the floor.

 

“Careful!” Stiles protested.

 

“Stiles.” There was warning in the voice.

 

“Sorry Elder Kain.”

 

“If we hurt him, he’ll heal anyways. Have a seat.”

 

Stiles did as he was told.

 

“We don’t blame you for the incident.”

 

This was a surprise.

 

“We are now going to wake the beast up and attempt to have a conversation with him. In order to show a united front you need to remain silent.”

 

“Why am I even here?” Stiles asked.

 

“We’re hoping that seeing this will provide you with a valuable lesson.”

 

Stiles nodded.

 

“Elder Gwaine, if you may.” Elder Kain elegantly waved in Derek’s direction.

 

Elder Gwaine threw a purple powder on the werewolf, who woke up with a sneeze.

 

Fangs out and back to a wall, Derek let out a low growl at the room.

 

“Please, do try and be civilized.” The elder sounded less than impressed. “I am Elder Kain. This is Elder Gwaine, Almanzar, Seefa and Morgana.”

 

Derek looked at each elder as they were named but his eyes settled on the gangly boy from the classroom.

 

“Are you capable of returning to a full human form?” Elder Morgana all but spat out.

 

“Yes,” Derek did so.

 

“If you could sit,” Elder Kain pulled out the chair across from Stiles.

 

    Derek sat and looked at Stiles. The young witch was focused on the table. Derek looked down at it wondering if there was an interesting intricate pattern sketched into it but all he found was regular wood. Stiles’ heart was pounding.

  
  
“This coven and your pack have managed to live side by side for quite some time now. We coexist by respecting the treaty. We even went out of our way to help your family rebuild your house after the fire. It was mutually beneficial. It allowed our students to experience strength spells and sped up the construction process.” 

 

Derek clenched his teeth. How dare this guy speak of the worse moment of his life as a learning experience!

 

The elder continued, “Hence, you can imagine how disappointed we are to find you attacking one of our students.”

 

“I d-“ Derek started to defend himself.

 

“He didn’t-” Stiles joined in.

 

“Silence!” Elder Almanzar’s voice resonated through the room.

 

“Stiles, rule 9,” Elder Kain reminded him.

 

Rule 9: Do not speak to the elders unless spoken to.

 

He was pretty much being told to shut up.

 

“What’s your name?” Elder Seefa asked in a soft voice.

 

_Trap! It’s a trap! Don’t answer that!_ Stiles thought. 

 

“Derek Hale.”

 

_Idiot!_

 

“Derek Hale you are being charged, under the treaty agreement, with crossing the border uninvited and attacking a witch without provocation. Seeing as you are a minor, the treaty outlines that we must contact your elder before accepting a plea and carrying out your punishment,” Elder Kain explained.

 

_Why did you give him your name!_ _To do: learn how to project my thoughts into other people’s minds…I_

 

“This isn’t fair! I didn’t attack him!” Derek pleaded.

 

“We will discuss this with your elder. In the mean time…”

 

Another blast of blue powder was sent Derek’s way.

 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

 

When Derek woke up, he found himself on the floor of an empty classroom. There was still daylight out. He hoped he hadn’t been knocked out for too long. He really needed to get back before the moon came out.

 

Derek stretched and walked to the door. The second his hand came in contact with the doorknob, he was propelled across the room. His wolf instantly came out.

 

Of course, that was the moment Stiles entered the room. The door closed behind him and he froze in his tracks when he saw Derek in his werewolf form.

 

“Ok, bad idea!” Stiles turned around and tried the door handle but he was also propelled across the room.

 

“Ow.” He rubbed the back of his head.

 

Derek shifted back to his human form and approached the witch.

 

Stiles stretched his arms in front of him in a defence pose. “No! I’m fine! Please! Don’t eat me!”

 

“Why do you keep thinking I’m going to eat you?” Derek cocked an eyebrow.

 

“Isn’t…isn’t that what werewolves do?”

 

“No! And if we did, you would be the last human I’d want to eat, you’re all bones.” Derek tried to lighten the mood.

 

Stiles gave him a weak smile, but lowered his arms.

 

“Can you get me out of here?” Derek asked.

 

“Uh well…see…I was so focused on breaking the seal to get in, I didn’t really think of how I would get out…” Stiles scratched the side of his face.

 

“Are you serious? So I’m trapped in here with your stupidity? Great.”

 

“Hey!” Stiles got offended. “More like I’m trapped in here with your…you…shut up. Anyways, you shouldn’t have given your name to the elders. They can’t charge you if they don’t know what your name is. Who’s stupid now!”

 

“Still you. How long do we have to wait for your lovely people to come and get us?”

 

Stiles shrugged. “Depends how long it takes your elder to get here and have a conversation with them.”

 

“Alpha.”

 

“Huh?” Stiles asked.

 

“Alpha. We have alphas, not elders. I mean we have elders but if you’re talking about the leader of the pack, it’s the alpha.” Why was he even explaining this?

 

“Oh. Cool.” Stiles bit his bottom lip. Derek found it strangely distracting. He shook his head to clear his mind.

 

“My da – alpha should know to get me out before the moon rises.”

 

“What happens when the moon rises? Oh shit, it’s a full moon isn’t it! You’re going to eat me when the moon rises!”

 

“For crying out loud! I’m not going to eat you. Ever. I might rip your throat out.”

 

“That is realllly not as comforting as you probably think it is.” Stiles bobbed his head as he talked.

 

Derek sat down in one of the chairs and crossed his arms.

 

Stiles got up from the floor and walked to the table where Derek was sitting. He took the seat in front of the werewolf.

 

“My name’s Stiles.”

 

“Good for you.” Came the grumpy reply.

 

“Really? Not going to comment on how weird a name it is? Everyone comments!”

 

“I bet everyone also thinks you talk too much.”

 

This, of all the things Derek had done, seemed to get to Stiles. The younger teenager slumped his shoulders and Derek could sense soft waves of sadness coming from him. Derek decided he wasn’t going to feel bad. After all, he wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for this Stiles witch, so he had no reason to be nice to him.

 

Stiles started biting his nails.

 

“Will you stop that?” The sound drove Derek nuts.

 

“Swy.”

 

“What?”

 

“Sorry! Ok! I’m sorry! Sorry I couldn’t speak up to the elders to tell them that it was Greenberg whose spell went horribly wrong and somehow conjured or attracted or I don’t know! All of a sudden there were snakes! Everyone ran out of the room and I was circled and then you showed up and probably saved my life. So, yeah. Sorry my sad little life got you in trouble. Sorry.” Stiles looked at his hands.

 

“Why couldn’t you speak up to the elders?”

 

“Rules. I’m just really tired of getting punished. I’m sorry, I was a coward.”

 

“Stop apologizing.” Ok, Derek now felt bad.

 

“This place sucks.” Stiles said.

 

“This day sucks.”


	2. Mushroom Hunt

“Ooooh my god!” Stiles whined and smacked his head on the desk repeatedly. “I am so bored!”

 

“It’s only been an hour!”

 

“An hour of nothing! You won’t even talk to me.”

 

They had been sitting around the classroom in silence. Every time Stiles had started to say something, he was met with what could only be described as a death glare from Derek.

 

“Why do you keep thinking I’m going to eat you?” Derek regretted the question the second he asked it.

 

“Well…that’s what werewolves do right?”

 

This was news to him, “Says who?”

 

“Everyone? It’s like camp fire stories, you know, big bad wolf comes and eats misbehaving children.”

 

“That’s really what witches think?”

 

“I don’t really know what witches think. I grew up with regular humans. I’ve only recently developed the spark.” Stiles said the word with all the hate in the world. He bit the nail of his right thumb, “If it makes you feel better, werewolves aren’t as scary as vampires.”

 

Derek rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that doesn’t help.”

 

The door to the classroom opened.

 

“Sweet freedom!” Stiles shouted before remembering that he really wasn’t supposed to have been there in the first place.

 

“Stilinski.” Elder Kain was less than impressed.

 

Before anyone could say anything else, Stiles quickly blurted out that it was all Greenberg’s fault and Derek actually saved him.

 

Elder Kain pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

Mr. Hale entered the classroom.

 

“Dad! You need to get me out of here, the moon!”

 

“The full moon won’t rise for another hour.” Mr. Hale said sternly. “I figured letting you sit here and stew for a while would be good for you.”

 

“What? You took an hour to get here on purpose?”

 

“You were in no real danger.”

 

Derek look appalled. “Mom wouldn’t have let me sit here.” It was a low blow.

 

Mr. Hale pursed his lips. “We can discuss this when we get home. Now we need to discuss the accusations held against you and the punishment you will suffer for crossing the border.”

 

“What! He’s innocent, he doesn’t need to be punished.” As usual, Stiles was forgetting about rule 9.

 

“Stilinski. Go to my office immediately. I will come deal with you when we are done here.” The look of fury in Elder Kain’s eyes was enough to have Stiles bite his tongue before marching out of the room.

 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

 

“You’re lucky they agreed to a minor punishment.” Mr. Hale was furious with his son as they walked back to their home.

 

“Lucky? Dad! I was helping! And the punishment is embarrassing! It’s degrading to our kind, I can’t believe you agreed to it.”

 

“Derek!” The alpha stopped walking and turned around to face his son. “You crossed the border! That is the absolute most important rule of the treaty: Do not cross the border uninvited. Even if one of their own had been in trouble, they could have handled it. Honestly son. Did you think before taking action?”

 

Derek cast his gazed to the ground.

 

“I don’t know how to help you anymore. You won’t let me in, you’re angry all the time and now you’ve almost started a war with the witches.” Mr. Hale sighed. He loved his son and he missed his wife. She would have known exactly what to say to make things better. “The sentence they chose is extremely embarrassing, I’ll give you that, but maybe it’ll teach you some humility, and hopefully some control. Starting Monday, you will carry out your punishment and I expect you to carry it through for the entire month. If any teacher or student complains…Derek please just this once, do as you’re told.”

 

“I wish mom had survived the fire.” The ‘instead of you’ was left unsaid.

 

Mr. Hale felt his already broken heart shatter in to even smaller pieces.

 

“Come on. Let’s get you fed and in the basement before the sun sets.” He led his son back to the house.

 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

 

Saturday found Stiles feeling more antsy than usual. Since he had arrived at the boarding school, his Adderall had been replaced with a potion he only had to take once a week, on Sundays. It actually worked really well and Stiles was learning how to make it himself. For the time being, he was still having issues slicing the Rose hip just the right way so the school nurse still made the potion for him.

 

Stiles would have made a joke to Scott about the nurse purposely finding problems with his slices just to get to stare at his cute butt all the time…but there was no point in texting Scott.

 

Sitting on his bed, surrounded by books, Stiles felt alone. And bored. And angry that Scott had dropped off the face of the planet!

 

      Stiles to Scott [12:36pm]

          - You suck donkey balls!

 

He placed his phone back in his pocket and went over the ingredients needed for the potion he had to make for Monday. He chewed on the tip of his pen. _Entoloma holoconiotum…what is it with witches and the scientific names!_

He looked at his supply of mushrooms. He didn’t have that specific one and of course everything had to be so specific with potions. No substituting one mushroom for another. He left his room and walked to the East wing where the Fungus room was located. He found Professor Markus sitting at his desk. When the professor didn’t react to Stiles’ presence, the boy cleared his throat.

 

“If it’s for Entoloma holoconiotum, I’m all out!” The professor didn’t even look up.

 

“But – ”

 

“You’ll have to find it yourself in the forest. Good day.”

 

With this grouchy dismissal Stiles left and returned to his room. He googled the mushroom and was relieved to find that it grew in Californian forests in the spring.

 

He jumped off the bed and grabbed his elements pouch and left the dorms. He headed to the woods. The mushroom he was looking for grew in clusters under coniferous trees. He started checking out the base of every tree before finally stopping to actually look around him. The forest was rather beautiful and the fresh spring air did his lungs some good.

 

He looked up at the blue sky and realized he had never really explored the grounds before. It’s not like he was in prison or anything, but he was usually preoccupied with studying and practicing to prove to everyone that he wasn’t a useless spark. He looked around and decided to explore a little. Students were allowed to venture around as long as they didn’t cross the Hale border.

 

_Rule number 1._ Stiles thought. _You would think rule number 1 would be don’t murder anyone! But nope, that’s rule number 17. No hexing other students is even higher than that!_

 

Stiles gave a nearby rock a hard kick. He heard it splash into water and walked towards the sound. A nice stream was running through the forest and there were stones going from one side to the other. Stiles couldn’t resist! He jumped on the first stone and then to the second. When he reached the other side he did a victory dance.

 

“Seriously?”

 

Stiles froze. He looked around but couldn’t find the body associated with the familiar voice.

 

Derek stepped out from a large cluster of trees, arms crossed and looking mighty unimpressed.

 

Stiles grinned, “Hey, if you knew me, you would also be amazed that I got across without falling in!”

 

“You know you crossed the border right?”

 

Stiles mouth dropped open, “Oh shit! No! No, no, no! Don’t tell me the stream was the border? No! Come on? The border needs to be something obvious! It can’t be the stream.”

 

The rhythm of Stiles’ panicking heart was loud in Derek’s ears.

 

“It’s not the stream…how did you not see it?”

 

“See what?!” Stiles squealed.

 

Derek cocked an eyebrow. “The border? The yellow shield marking the line?”

 

“Where? Is it nailed to a tree?”

 

“What? No. It’s a magical shield, like a yellow mist separating our lands. How did you not see it?”

 

Stiles felt his heart sink. “Can it be seen by humans?” He asked.

 

“No. Just supernatural things, like werewolves and witches.”

 

“I’m not a stupid witch, I have a spark! I guess I’m not supernatural enough to see it! WHY?” Stiles screamed at the woods. “Why do I have to have a spark if I can’t even use it! I am busting my balls trying to light it and it’s not working!” Stiles threw his pouch on the ground.

 

“Can’t the other students help you figure it out?” Derek didn’t know what else to say.

 

“Ha! Yeah. No. I’m an outsider in more ways than one. No one talks to me. Hell, I had more friends before this whole magick business – granted it was just one and he doesn’t talk to me anymore, but still…” Stiles fought back tears.

 

Derek had absolutely no idea what he should be saying or how he should be reacting. He could sense the boy’s sadness, but he had never been all that good when it came to dealing with emotions.

 

“Will they know that I crossed the border?” Stiles asked.

 

Derek shrugged. “Probably not. If anything supernatural crosses, they know but you…um…you…”

 

“I don’t appear to be all that supernatural,” Stiles finished for him.

 

“Why are you in the woods anyways?”

 

“Looking for a stupid mushroom! It’s for a potion I have to make as homework.”

 

“Which mushroom?”

 

“In..en…aurgh what was it called…Entoloma hol – oconcotum, or something like that.”

 

“Entoloma holoconiotum?”

 

“Yes, how the hell do you know that?”

 

“I’m not allowed to know things?” Derek asked, a little insulted.

 

“Well, no offence, but you look like you’re more brawn than brains.”

 

Derek frowned and walked away.

 

“Good going Stiles!” he said to himself, assuming he had insulted away the only teenager he had had a conversation with in weeks.

 

Derek, however, came back with a handful of mushrooms.

 

“No way!” Stiles smiled and grabbed his pouch from the ground. He rummaged through it and took out and empty glass jar. He opened it and Derek dropped the mushrooms inside. “Thanks!”

 

“No problem. What does the potion do anyways?”

 

“It’s supposed to change your skin colour. Apparently it’s used by some beings with like green or purple skin to help them blend in with the humans. I’ll have to test it on myself to make sure I get it right; I can’t hand in another botched potion. I have problems focusing so I always end up doing something wrong.”

 

“Can’t you take some kind of potion to help with that?”

 

“Yeah, I take one but it’s very difficult to contain all my awesomeness,” he placed his hands on his hips and wiggled his eyebrows.

 

“We could meet up tomorrow and I can help you if you want?” Derek proposed before realizing what he was saying. Why the hell was he offering to hang out with this annoying kid? Who got him in trouble on top of it all!

 

If the werewolf had the courage to be honest with himself, he would have been able to acknowledge that it was nice to actually have someone to hang out with. Before the fire, he had been quite the popular kid in school but since then, his mood swings and general bad attitude kept the other students at a distance. His pack members were nice and all but he always felt like they resented him. He would never admit it, but he was lonely.

 

“That would be awesome! Ok! So same time, same location tomorrow? Unless we should meet on like neutral grounds or something?”

 

“Whatever, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” Derek shrugged.

 

“Sweet!” Stiles spun around and went to hop the stones back to the other side of the stream. He lost his footing on the third stone and was about the fall into the water when strong arms caught him. Derek was standing in the stream and walked through it to drop Stiles on the other side.

 

 “Thanks man!” Stiles looked around awkwardly. “See you tomorrow?”

 

“Yeah.” Derek turned around, walked out of the stream and disappeared into the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^_^


	3. Douchebags

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter is short
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks again to Kalyppso! English isn't my first language and she patiently corrects all my stupid mistakes.

Stiles was more than pleased when he returned and was not swarmed by elders. His happiness disappeared as soon as he realised this meant he really wasn’t a witch and his spark was so small he couldn’t set off the barrier.

 

He spent the rest of the afternoon collecting the required ingredients for the potion. Herbs from the Herbology room, flower petals from the Greenhouse, the…weird stuff…from the Closet where you had to present the official homework parchment outlining the potion to get what you needed from the room’s caretaker. So much running around! Stiles wondered why it wasn’t all kept in one room; maybe it was to force the students to exercise. 

 

Once he had everything collected, he returned to his room. He grabbed his altar cloth and carefully folded it; it would provide a clean surface to work on in the woods. He packed everything in his pouch and glanced at the clock. Realizing he had almost missed dinner, he bolted out of his room and ran to the great hall.  
  
After his late meal, Stiles returned to his dorm to find his roommate, Jackson, going through his pouch.

 

“Hey!” Stiles shouted.

 

Jackson pulled out the vile of mushrooms Derek had collected for Stiles.

 

“Thanks Spark!” Jackson spat before leaving the room.

 

Stiles fell face first on his bed. What had he done to deserve such a douchy roommate?! Jackson’s mightier than thou attitude and his constant bragging about having a gorgeous banshee girlfriend grated Stiles’ nerves on a daily basis.

 

He grabbed his towel and PJs and headed off to take a shower. It wasn’t difficult for him to find an empty stall since no one was around. The other students apparently had a social life on Saturday nights.

 

Stiles turned the water on and stripped. He left the water running until it reached a comfortable heat before stepping under the warm flow. He tilted his head back as he turned around in the spray. The water fell on his back and rolled down his pale freckled physique. He grabbed his body wash and squeezed a healthy amount into his left hand. He placed the bottle down and rubbed his hands together, creating a large amount of suds before rubbing it across himself.

 

He absentmindedly let his hands wander down south. His thoughts went to earlier that afternoon, when Derek had caught him at the stream. He had felt the muscular body beneath him and those strong arms had been able to carry him so easily.

 

Stiles let his imagination wander. Derek would be able to hold him up against a wall. He would roughly man-handle him, ripping his clothes off. There would be no clothes in the way of Stiles feeling those impressive biceps.

 

Stiles bit his lip as he pumped his erection. He used his other arm to brace himself against the shower wall.

 

He wondered if Derek would take him facing the wall or not. Would he like to see Stiles’ face while he rammed his no doubt obscenely large cock up Stiles’ tight hole? Derek would bite him; mark him as his so everyone would know.

 

Stiles started jerking himself faster, breath hitching as he neared orgasm. With an uncontrollable gasp, he spilled out, back arched and eyes shut tight. The water quickly washed the evidence away and the teenager caught his breath.

 

A wave of guilt settled over him. He grabbed his shampoo and started washing his hair, trying not to feel to bad about the fact that he had just jerked off to the thought of a potential new friend. He spiked his suds filled hair in the shape of a Mohawk. Derek never needed to know…and Stiles just wouldn’t do it again.

 

 

 

The young man returned to his dorm room and was happy to find that Jackson was still absent. The guy was an ass, in Stiles' opinion, but at least he often stayed out late, keeping their interaction to a minimum.

 

Stiles grabbed his phone and texted Scott.

 

Stiles to Scott [9:17pm]

\- If you became a werewolf, you wouldn’t have to deal with your asthma.

 

He didn’t really know where the thought had came from, but it didn’t really matter since Scott wouldn’t actually be replying. Stiles threw his phone on his nightstand, settled himself under the blankets and grabbed a book on magical creatures.

 

The awkward teenager almost fell off his bed when his phone buzzed. It buzzed again. He was getting a call! He flailed his arms in the phones direction and knocked it off the stand. He leaned over and felt under the bed until he found it.

 

“HELLO?” He accidentally yelled.

 

“Um, hi.”

 

“Scott? SCOTT!” Stiles couldn’t decide if he should be happy or pissed off.

 

“Hey bro! How have you been?”

 

“How have I been? Are you serious?” He was starting to lean towards pissed.

 

“Yeah…um…that text you just sent me…”

 

“Wait, wait, wait! Of all the messages I’ve been sending you, THAT gets a reaction?”

 

“Yeah…well...it’s cause I…uh…I’m sort of a werewolf.”

 

“WHAT! My bestie becomes a beasty and doesn’t tell me about it?”

 

“You’re a witch, apparently witches and werewolves don’t get along all that well.”

 

“How is that an excuse? That is not an excuse! Bro!”

 

“I know, oh man I’ve been dying to tell you!”

 

“What happened? How? Who? Where? What? When?” Stiles had so many questions.

 

“It wasn’t exactly glamorous. I got attacked by some rogue werewolf.”

 

“Oh shit! Dude!”

 

“It’s ok. Well, it’s ok now.”

 

“So is this why I haven’t heard from you in like forever?”

 

“Yeah! Sorry bro.”

 

“I thought it was because of that stupid Isaac dude.”

 

“Um…well…he’s a werewolf to.”

 

“WHAT!”

 

“You have got to stop yelling! Werewolf hearing, super sensitive.”

 

“Sorry, but this is a lot to take in!”

 

“You can’t tell anyone! There’s these hunters…they’re not very nice…anyway please don’t tell! Teenage werewolves keep their identity secret to remain protected.”

 

Stiles snorted in response. “Wait, does that mean there are werewolves at the high school? Mingling with everyone?”

 

“Yeah, not every supernatural creature gets their own school.” Scott teased.

 

“Bitch please! You’re just jealous of my new level of social isolation,” Stiles answered sarcastically.

 

It was Scott’s turn to snort in response.

 

Stiles chuckled, “You really should have told me all this as soon as it happened. Here I was thinking you had gone gay for Isaac!”

 

 

“Scott?”

 

“About Isaac…”

 

“Nooooooooo!”

 

“He’s so hot! And funny and he has this cute secret sensitive side, and when he smiles, I swear I melt.”

 

“Oh. My. God. No way! How have you been keeping all of this from me?”

 

“I’m sorry man, it’s all been a bit of an adjustment.”

 

“A..a bit of an adjustment? Dude! I was thrown in a witch’s boarding school and abandoned by my best friend! You don’t think this has been a bit of an adjustment for me as well?”

 

“I’m a douche! I know! How bout you come over next Saturday? I’m sure your dad would give you permission to leave the grounds for a weekend.”

 

“Fine.” Stiles needed to learn how to stay mad at Scott.

 

“Sweet! Ok, see you then!”

 

They said their good byes and hung up.

 

Way too wired to sleep, Stiles returned to his book and opened it to the chapter on werewolves. He chewed the tip of his pen as he read.


	4. Mistakes are what Stiles does best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the lovely comments on the last chapters ^-^

Stiles actually woke up in a good mood on Sunday morning but he quickly felt annoyed when he realized he needed to wait until 1pm before heading out to meet Derek. So much time to kill! He sat up in bed and started clicking his tongue as he tried to think of things to do.

 

A book came flying his way. He looked over at Jackson’s bed and the boy was giving him a less than pleased look. “Some of us like sleeping in!”

 

After a healthy eye roll, Stiles got out of bed. He quickly changed and headed out of the room.

 

In the dining hall, he sat alone, as usual, and ate his breakfast. He pondered telling Scott about Derek but remembered Scott saying that werewolves liked to keep their identity a secret so he decided against it. Anyways, it wasn’t like Scott had been straightforward with him, so he didn’t feel too bad about keeping a secret of his own.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

The afternoon eventually rolled around and Stiles returned to his room to grab his pouch. He slung it across his shoulder and quickly looked himself over in the mirror before setting off.

 

He headed towards the woods and as he walked in the direction of their meeting place, a thought occurred which made Stiles start second-guessing this plan.

 

Not only was he crossing the border - again - he was also meeting up with a werewolf! An amazingly sculpted werewolf...but still a werewolf. A creature of power and strength... and why did Derek even want to help him anyway? With those looks he probably had a ton of friends and thus had better things to do.

  
Stiles stopped mid walk. Was this a trap? Was he being lured into the woods to be cooked? Or worse, was this a prank to get back at Stiles for getting Derek in trouble? Would there be a ton of werewolf elders waiting for him?

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“AH!” Stiles shouted as Derek appeared.

 

“Why are you panicking?”

 

“Why are you sneaking up on me?!”

 

“I’m not.”

 

Stiles tried to calm down. Ok, at least this wasn’t a prank.

 

“Is…is this a trap? Are you going to eat me?”

 

“Seriously? This again.” Derek did not look amused. “Mention me eating you one more time and I’m throwing you in the river.”

 

Stiles nodded to show that he understood. He nibbled at his lower lip, not sure what to say or do. He bounced on the balls of his feet.

 

“There’s a meadow near by, I figured we could work there.” Derek turned around and walked away. Stiles followed.

 

Soon enough they reach the meadow. Derek pointed at a large rock, “You could use that as a flat surface to prep your ingredients.”

 

“Genius!” Stiles headed over, “Oh…um…” He awkwardly ran his fingers through his hair, not making eye contact with Derek. “My stupid roommate stole my mushrooms…”

 

Derek pursed his lips and he walked away, into the woods. Stiles waited, tapping his hands on his sides.

 

Derek returned with a hand full of mushrooms.

 

The werewolf sat down beside the rock in one fluid motion. Stiles settled on the other side and looked up to see Derek staring at him with a cocked eyebrow.

 

“What?” the freckled boy asked.

 

“Are you all limbs? That was the least graceful attempt at sitting I have ever seen.”

 

“Yeah well, you’re all eyebrows!” Stiles shot back, taking off his pouch and opening it. He took out the book and turned to the page outlining the potion. “Alright, so I have to follow this formula. I’m thinking I’ll make my skin orange.”

 

“How does the potion know what color to make your skin?”

 

“Lily petals. You put in the petal of the colour you want.”

 

“How do you go back to your regular colour?”

 

“It wares off. I’m only going to take a spoonful so it should last something like 5 minutes. You are not allowed to laugh at me when I’m orange!”

 

Derek shrugged. “I’ll take some too. Then we can both be orange and no ones allowed to laugh.”

 

Stiles grinned. “You have way too much faith in my abilities!”

 

“And you have far too little faith. I know you only have a spark right now and it’s not enough to set off the border, but it is something. If you had zero abilities, your potions would just be soup.”

 

“I rather they were. My last potion was supposed to cure the common cold. Instead it gave me strep throat. At least it wasn’t as bad as Greenberg, he got the chicken pox!”

 

Derek took the book from Stiles. “How bout I read out each step so you don’t lose your place?”

 

“Sounds like a plan!”

 

“Step one: Prepare the cauldron by placing wood under it for the fire. Do not use a Bunsen burner.”

 

Stiles unhooked his little cauldron from the side of his bag and placed it on its support. He looked around for twigs.

 

“I’ll go get small branches while you start step two:  Cut one comfrey leaf diagonally, creating 2 millimetre slices.”

 

Stiles took out his vial of comfrey leaves as Derek headed towards the forest. Stiles definitely did not stare at Derek’s ass…nope, there was no staring whatsoever!

 

Derek returned.

 

“Step three: Crush one Jimson weed flower into a fine powder.”

 

“Not going to lie, I love that this book doesn’t use the scientific names! The teachers are obsessed with scientific names, the books are more user friendly.”

 

Derek chuckled while setting the branches under the cauldron.

 

“So, what’s your punishment?”

 

The werewolf crossed his arms, watching Stiles crush the flower in a mortar.

 

“I have to head to your school every day after I’m done classes. They’re going to give me chores to do. I have to stay there for two hours, Monday to Friday for a month.”

 

“Oh man that blows!” Stiles dumped the powder in the cauldron as Derek read off the next step.

 

“So your roommate stole your mushrooms?”

 

“Yeah! He’s an ass! He’s so pompous and always ranting about his apparently beautiful red headed girlfriend. No way she’s prettier than Lydia!”

 

“Lydia Martin?”

 

“Yes! You know her?”

 

“Yeah, we go to the same high school.”

 

“Oh man! Isn’t she a goddess!”

 

“Not really my type. Step five: One teaspoon of crushed snake skin.”

 

“Yuck! And we have to drink this! Anyways, you probably like them older. Not like super old just you know, your age. Not that I’m that much younger than you. How old are you anyways? I’m guessing you’re a senior.”

 

“Yeah, in my last year.”

 

“See! Not that old! I’m two grades under, not that you care. My spark developed over the summer so this is my first year in magick school. Don’t know why it has to be a boarding school! I miss my dad.”

 

“Step six: One vial of rose water, aged 5 years.”

 

It continued like so. Stiles ranting about this or that and Derek reading off the instructions. Soon all the ingredients were in.

 

“Final steps: Light the fire and stir the potion counter-clockwise for 3 minutes without stopping. After exactly 3 minutes remove the potion from the flames, add the desired lily petal and say the incantation.”

 

Stiles does so and feels a tingling in his fingers as he says the words, like electricity coursing through him. He poured a spoonful into two different plastic test tubes.

 

“Alright, you sure you also want to try it?” he asked.

 

“Just give me the vial!” Derek grabbed one from Stiles’ hand.

 

They cheers and swallow the contents in one gulp.

 

Stiles squints his eyes. “You’re not orange. Dammit!” Then everything started spinning.

 

Stiles blinked a few times as his vision returned to normal before realizing that he was now staring at himself. “Oh my god I cloned myself!” 

 

“What?” Derek asked but it wasn’t in his voice. “Oh no! No! This is not happening!”

 

“Holy shit!” Stiles blinked a few more times for good measure.

 

“Stiles. Tell me you did not just body swap us.”

 

Stiles threw his hands up in the air, rather victoriously. “Holy shit, I just body swapped us! Do you know how advanced that is! This is so cool!”

 

“No. This is not cool. In no way is this cool. Swap us back!” Derek grabbed the collar of his own shirt and tried pulling Stiles towards him in a menacing manor. This, however, did not work. He found that Stiles, in the werewolf body, was a rather immovable force.

 

“Wow,” Stiles said, “Am I really that pathetic?”

 

“Fix this!” Derek snarled.

 

“Stop that, stop sneering with my face! That is not attractive!”

 

Derek rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

 

“Ok. Uh. Since I don’t actually know what I did, I’m going to need some books to try and figure out how to change us back.”

 

“Can’t we just drink the same potion again?” Derek suggested.

 

“Oh yes! Potion! Yes!” Stiles flared his new arms around, they were rather larger than what he was used to and he accidentally hit the cauldron, sending the remaining potion flying out of it and onto the grass.

 

Derek blinked, mouth gaping open.

 

“Hey! That was so not my fault! Your giant body got in the way!” Stiles tried.

 

Derek leaped across the rock and onto Stiles. His original thought was to pin down Stiles and threaten him with bodily harm. However, his newly acquired slim figure was no match for the werewolf body and he ended up awkwardly straddling Stiles.

 

“This is just weird. It’s like I’m straddling myself.” Stiles commented. “Unstraddle me.”

 

“Fix this!” Derek ordered.

 

“I didn’t know my face could look that angry. Please just get off, this is weird. I’d push you off but I wouldn’t want to bruise my beautiful body.”

 

Derek got off and sat beside Stiles. “I can’t believe you body swapped us then tossed the potion into the grass!”

 

“Hey! You knew the risks and you opted to try the potion anyways!”

 

“Where are the books you need?”

 

“I’ll run and get them.” Stiles got up. Derek quickly stood up and almost fell over.

 

“Seriously, your body is all limbs! And no, you are not going anywhere! You’re in my body – my werewolf body, you can’t cross the border. Tell me where the books are. I’ll go get them. You wait here.”

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

Derek followed Stiles’ instructions to the dorm. He had no problem figuring out which side was occupied by the idiot with a knack for getting him in trouble. While one side was nice and clean, the other had tons of papers pinned all over the walls and things stacked all over the place. He started piling books on the bed.

 

“Hey Spark! You can read all you want, you’ll never be a witch.”

 

Derek turned around to find a very trimmed teenager smirking in his direction.

 

“What is your problem?” he replied.

 

The boys eyebrows shot up. “You. Obviously.”

 

“Oh, right, cause you’re jealous. You were born a witch while I was chosen to receive a spark by nature. I have an infinite amount of potential. I could be great while you’re simply common, ordinary.” 


	5. Scents

Stiles waited around the meadow in his newly appropriated body. He was surrounded by a strange smell of a fresh autumn day and warm spices, like cinnamon or nutmeg. Not one to waste an opportunity, he quickly glanced around to make sure he was alone. He then felt up his left bicep.  _Damn_ .

 

He wondered if he had enough strength to push a tree over but decided against it, best not to attract attention. As a fly buzzed by, he cupped his hands over his ears. _Holy crap, Scott was not kidding about the sensitive hearing. This is not how I pictured myself being inside Derek…ha ha lame joke Stiles! Aurgh so bored!_

He twirled around a couple of times and sat back down near the rock. He scratched at some moss growing on it’s surface and jumped back when claws came out.

 

“AH!”

 

He stared at the hands. “Go back in!” He tried ordering, but nothing happened. As he tried to figure out how to get the claws to go away, a whiff of shortbread and earth scent hit him. He spun around to see his body walking into the meadow.

 

Getting there faster than expected, he noticed something was wrong. “My face!” Stiles exclaimed, “My beautiful face, what have you done to it!” Using Derek’s hands he cupped his own face to take a closer look at the new shiner it was sporting.

 

“Careful the claws!”

 

“Oh, right.” Stiles let go. “How do I make them go back in?”

 

“Huh? They just…do…I don’t know just think it or something?”

 

“I am visualizing the claws going back in…nothing is happening.”

 

“You’re trying to hard, it’s a normal thing, like you moving your hand around.”

 

Stiles shook his hands absentmindedly and the claws retracted.

 

“Now that that’s done, what did you do to my face?” he accused.

 

“I insulted your roommate. He punched me,” Derek responded.

 

“Jackson punched you?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You insulted him? That’s awesome!” A wide smile spread across his face. Derek didn’t like the look of it.

 

“Not awesome, painful.” Derek extended his arms towards Stiles, “Will you take some of these books? You’re weak body is having issues carrying them.”

 

“Oh, right.” Stiles took most of the pile that Derek had been carrying. They walked over to the rock. Stiles sat down and opened the first one. Derek followed suit and started reading one from his pile.

 

“What are we even looking for?” Derek eventually asked.

 

“Anything about body swapping or spell reversal.”

 

“These books are huge, it’s going to take us forever! We should just ask one of your elders.” Derek knew the suggestion would be turned down.

 

“Are you kidding me? They would murder me for crossing the border alone!”

 

“We can say we met in town.”

 

“No, I need written permission to leave the grounds.”

 

Stiles read one page before needing to speak again, “I still can’t believe you insulted Jackson.”

 

Derek slumped his shoulders, exasperated. “Yeah and he punched me! I’ve mentioned the pain? I was born a werewolf, I’m used to rapid healing.”

 

“You big baby! If humans can deal with it their entire life, you can live with it now.”

 

“Just read your book and find something!”

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

They had each finished one book when the sun going down caught Stiles’ attention.

 

“We won’t have time to finish tonight, I’ll take the books back with me and research at your place, you need to get back to my school.”

 

“Absolutely not! No. I am not spending a day in your body!”

 

“Please, Derek! My sweet ass needs to be back on campus before curfew! And it’s Sunday, the nurse will be waiting for me to take my Adderall potion.”

 

"No!”

 

“Derek, please!”

 

Derek knew there really was no other option and he hated it.

 

“Fine. You follow the stream until it goes under a large tree and then turn right. Keep walking until you reach my house. You go directly up the stairs, turn left. My room is the third door on the right. You go in and you stay there! Don’t interact with anyone!”

 

“Won’t your family find it weird that I’m ignoring them?”

 

“Just do as I say and I’ll go back and pretend to be you. Shouldn’t be too hard, flail around every four seconds, talk too much and be generally annoying.”

 

“Oh yeah, cause I’m going to enjoy being an antisocial grump!” Stiles bit back.

 

“Look, just go to my room. Tomorrow go to school, talk to no one and then come over to your school afterwards. I have to be there anyways for my punishment so no one will question it. You better have found a way to fix this by then.”

 

“Ok, ok.” Stiles started packing his supplies back into his pouch. This had turned into a disaster. He gave Derek directions to the dining hall and the nurse’s office. “I’ll text you when I know which room the elder’s will have you working in…actually give me my phone.” Stiles started feeling around Derek’s pocket to give him his.

 

“I left mine in my bedroom,” Derek explained.

 

“Seriously? Who leaves without their phone? Aurgh fine, keep mine and I’ll text it tomorrow.”

 

Derek nodded in agreement.

 

“Honestly, if you’re going to pass as me you’re going to need to work on actually making facial expressions.”

 

“I don’t plan on interacting with anyone.”

 

“Whatever,” Stiles was feeling exasperated. “Just try not to get me beat up again!”

 

Derek nodded then forced a smile.

 

“One day…we can do this.” Stiles nodded at himself.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

After a bit of a walk, Stiles found the Hale house. He went in and up the stairs, as instructed. He found Derek’s bedroom and realized that it smelled strangely like the autumn and spice scent that had been following him around. He threw his pile of books on the large bed.

 

“Derek,” a male voice called out, “Come down here please.”

 

Stiles figured it was Derek’s dad and even though he was told to ignore everyone, he thought it best not to ignore Derek’s dad. It would probably result in Derek getting in more trouble. He hesitantly left the safety of the bedroom and went down the stairs.

 

“Son, you missed dinner. Are you hungry? I have a plate of left overs for you.”

 

“No!” Stiles squeaked, he cleared his throat and tried again, “No. Thank you father.” Father? Why the hell did he use father! That was way too formal.

 

Mr. Hale didn’t seem phased.

 

“Stay there, I’m going to warm up the plate for you. You can bring it to your room.”

 

Mr. Hale disappeared down the hallway. Stiles nervously looked around.

 

“Jesus bro, calm down!” A girl with long, straight brown hair appeared and punched his arm. Without waiting for an answer she walked up the stairs, leaving a scent of ginger behind.

 

_Calm down. Calm down. They can smell your nerves. Oh my god I am so screwed!_

 

“Here you go son.” Mr. Hale handed him a plate but did not let go when Stiles tried to take it.

 

“What did you do?” Mr. Hale asked.

 

“Nothing! Just…uh…nervous about working at the witch school tomorrow.”

 

Mr. Hale visibly relaxed and let go of the plate.

 

“It’ll be fine. Just go straight after school, work for a couple of hours and then come back here.”

 

Stiles nodded and attempted to leave but Mr. Hale stopped him again.

 

“And Derek, no wandering around in the woods tomorrow. I expect you to come straight home after your work. You will not show disrespect to the new pack members by being late for the meeting. I know you don’t like Scott, but he shows great promise and he would be a wonderful addition to the pack.”

 

“SCOTT! Scott McCall?” Stiles gawked at Mr. Hale. It had to be another Scott.

 

“Yes, Derek. We’ve gone through this already. Scott was attacked and changed without consent. We can’t leave him isolated to become a lone wolf. We’re better than that! If Scott decides to join our pack, we will accept him as our own.”

 

“Scott McCall?” Stiles was pretty sure he had entered the twilight zone.

 

“Ha! Look who’s turned into a broken record.” Another girl appeared from the living room. She was older than the first one and also had long brown hair but she had a bit of a wave to hers. She smelled like cloves.  _Must be related_ , Stiles thought. _Wait of course they’re related, this is their home_. _Why does everyone smell like different types of spices? Do they roll around in it?_

“Come on Derek,” the girl continued, “not everyone is as anti-social as you! Plus, Scott has already bonded quite nicely with the other new members.”

 

“Scott. From Beacon Hills High School?” Stiles had to be sure.

 

Mr. Hale threw his hands up in the air and walked away.

 

“Derek, please! Dad is trying so hard to rebuild our pack.” She paused, apparently expecting a reaction from Derek. Stiles had no clue what she was talking about so he just stood there, awkwardly holding his plate of food.  
  
“I know you’re not thrilled of having to go to the same school as the pack members, but it’s not like we’re forcing you to eat lunch with them. We need to protect ourselves; we do that by having numbers! You know this.”

 

“You’re using teenagers to protect yourself?” Stiles wasn’t exactly sure why but he felt his eyes heat up. The girl took a step back.

 

“Ok, ok! Calm down! You know they needed us as much as we needed them. As for Scott, dad is right. We can’t let him be a lone wolf.”

 

 _What the hell is a lone wolf?_ This was too much.

 

“I…I’m going to bed.” Stiles turned around and walked up the stairs.

 

He sat on Derek’s bed and took a bite of the food that had been given to him. He opened one of the books and settled in for a long night of research.

 

By 10:30pm he needed a break. He rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands and got up. He walked in front of a mirror nailed to the wall and stopped. It’s not like he could sleep in normal clothes, and he would have to change tomorrow anyways…

 

He took the shirt off and shamelessly stared at the sculpted abs. He felt something awaken and turned around. _Nope. Too weird. Not turning myself on by staring at myself._

He spotted Derek’s phone on the nightstand and grabbed it.

 

He texted his own number.

 

Stiles [10:41pm]

-       Why does your entire family smell like spices?

 

Stiles [10:41pm]

-       Is it on purpose? So you all smell like pumpkin pie when you’re together? Weird family fetish?

 

Derek [10:44pm]

-       Everyone has a distinct scent. Werewolves can smell them, humans can’t.

 

Stiles [10:44pm]

-       Doesn’t explain why you all collectively smell like pumpkin pie!

 

Derek [10:45pm]

-       We’re related so it’s natural that our scent compliment each others.

 

Stiles [10:45pm]

-       Weird!

 

Stiles [10:45pm]

-       Wait do I smell like shortbread and earth?

 

Derek [10:48pm]

-       Yes.

 

Stiles [10:48pm]

-       Why do I have to have such a weird scent!

 

Derek [10:48pm]

-       I like it.

 

Why had he just texted that! As he realized what he had just sent, Derek felt the human skin heat up as a deep blush settled across his face. He was tired and huddled under the blankets to keep warm. Stupid weak body.

 

Derek [10:49pm]

-       I’m going to sleep. Your body is useless.

 

Stiles [10:50pm]

-       Ok, I’ll keep researching.

 

 _He likes my scent_ , Stiles thought before returning to his pile of books.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your comments on the last chapter (✿◠‿◠) I loved your reactions to Derek insulting Jackson!


	6. Teenagers are mean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a busy week coming up so I might not be able to get the next chapter until next weekend. I'll try my best! Just in case I don't, I've made this chapter longer than usual to make up for it.

Derek woke up the next morning feeling way too many aches and pains in his body. How the hell did normal people function in such useless bodies was beyond him. He had rummaged through Stiles’ things the night before and had found a copy of his class schedule. Incantation, Potions, Ancient Languages and Herbology. This was not going to be a fun day. He quickly changed out of the PJs before realizing he really needed to pee. _Just great_. He headed over to the washroom and peed while giving the wall ahead of him all his attention. He zipped up and went to wash his hands. He glanced in the mirror and moved his head from side to side to inspect the mess of bed hair he was sporting. This body might be useless, but it definitely wasn’t unattractive. He felt heat invade his cheeks as he blushed at the reflection. Stiles better figure out a way to swap them back!

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles made it through the first part of the day rather easily. No one seemed interested in talking to him; everyone preferring to avoid Derek’s body at all cost. It quickly became apparent that Derek was not the popular guy Stiles believed him to be.

 

He sat alone during lunch. As he poked the school’s mashed potatoes with his fork, a strange mixture of scents hit him. He was getting used to everyone having a faint scent, but this was much stronger. There was basil, citrus, cayenne pepper…it was clearly a group. He looked up to see a small cluster of students walking into the cafeteria. First in tow was a guy Stiles recognized: named Boyd, maybe? Stiles couldn’t quite remember the name. He was followed by a tall curly haired boy, a gorgeous blonde who seemed full of life, a brunette who didn’t smell as strong as the others, the young girl from last night that had punched Stiles in the arm and then... _SCOTT_! Stiles forced himself not to jump up and wave. Scott was followed by Lydia. _No way! I leave and he makes a group of friends! Which includes Lydia! I wonder if one of them is Isaac._ He bit his lower lip and tried to not be so obvious about the fact that he was staring.

 

They all sat down at a table together and took out their lunches. Boyd looked over to where Stiles was sitting and raised an eyebrow. Stiles freaked and went back to staring at his purchased food. _Calm yourself, Stilinski! They can probably hear your insane heart beat!_ He took a deep breath and caught the scents again. Some were definitely more powerful than others. He wondered if those with stronger ones were werewolves. Could there really be such a large amount in one high school?

 

He took out Derek’s phone.

 

Stiles [12:08pm]

-       Do you have pack members at this school?

 

Derek [12:10pm]

-       Do not talk to anyone.

 

Stiles [12:11pm]

-       Oh come on, maybe I could do some good and make you some friends.

 

Derek [12:11pm]

-       Don’t you dare!

 

Stiles [12:11pm]

-       Watcha gonna do about it big guy? Or you know, slim guy.

 

Derek [12:12pm]

-       You’re already in trouble for not handing in your potion this morning. I wonder what I have to do to get you in detention…

 

With all the commotion, Stiles had completely forgotten about his homework.

 

Stiles [12:12pm]

-       Frek! How much trouble am I in exactly?

 

Derek [12:13pm]

-       The teacher was very impressed with the fact that you/I was able to sit through the entire class without talking out of term so he’s giving you until tomorrow morning to hand it in.

 

Stiles [12:13pm]

-       Sweet!!!!

 

“Who the hell is Derek texting?” Stiles heard one of the teenagers from the group sitting with Scott say.

 

“Who knows?! His drug dealer?” the curly haired boy replied.

 

“He doesn’t have a drug dealer!” the sister defended.

 

“Well it’s not like he has friends either!”

 

_Wow, that’s annoying,_ Stiles thought, _and rude! If they’re werewolves they know I can hear them!_

 

Stiles [12:14pm]

-       How do you turn the super hearing off?

 

Derek [12:14pm]

-       Focus on something else, or put earphones in.

 

Stiles shoved his hands in the pockets of the leather jacket he had thrown on this morning. Success! He hooked them up to the phone and shoved the buds in his ears. He started the music just as the sister tried to defend her brother.

 

Stiles [12:15pm]

-       What’s your sister’s name?

 

Derek [12:15pm]

-       Do not talk to anyone!

 

Stiles [12:15pm]

      -Yeah I get that! But just in case she comes over and talks to me.

 

Derek [12:16pm]

-       Cora

 

Stiles [12:16pm]

-       She seems nice

 

Derek [12:17pm]

-       You cannot date my sister.

 

Stiles snorted and was pretty sure the group had looked in his direction at the sound.

 

He cleared his plate and checked the time. There was still thirty minutes to the lunch break. He thought about going to hide in the library for the rest of the lunch break but figured it would probably be really out of character for Derek to be seen in a library and he didn’t want to raise suspicion. Instead, he stayed seated in front of his empty plate, listening to music and hating high school.

 

Stiles [12:25pm]

-       High school sucks

 

Derek [12:26pm]

-       I’m aware

 

Derek [12:26pm]

-       Magic high school isn’t much better

 

Stiles [12:27pm]

-       Magick. Magic is like those fake tricks at birthday parties

 

Stiles [12:27pm]

-       Magick is the real stuff…which I can’t do anyways

 

Derek [12:28pm]

-       You’ll figure it out

 

Derek [12:29pm]

-       Scott is texting you

 

Stiles [12:29pm]

-       Crap! Now he decides to text!

 

Stiles [12:29pm]

-       Just ignore him. Taste of his own medicine.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

The final bell rang, freeing Stiles from the torment that was English class. He ran over to the Camaro, amazed that he got to drive such a thing! That said, he really missed his jeep. He hadn’t been allowed to bring it to school with him.

 

He drove in the direction of the boarding school and, soon enough, he detected what looked like a transparent yellow cloud creating a border. Three elders were standing there, presumable waiting for his arrival.

 

Stiles slowed to a stop in front of them. Elder Seefa walked up the driver’s side and Stiles rolled down the window.

 

“There will be a parking lot to your left. Leave the car there. We will meet you at the main doors. You are not to engage with any of our students. Is that understood?”

 

“Yup,” Stiles replied, popping the P.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles [3:34pm]

-       I’ll be in that classroom where we first met. Bring my pouch.

 

Derek [3:35pm]

-       Seeing as I was unconscious when I left that room, I have no clue where it is.

 

Oh. Right. Stiles typed up some instructions and headed over to the room. He crossed some students on his way and received disgusting looks from some, while others quickly ran the other way. He was starting to understand why Derek was always so moody.

 

He entered the classroom and dropped his bag on one of the tables, he took out his own books and shuffled through them until he found the one he needed.

 

He quickly turned around when he heard Derek arrive. He rushed towards him and bear hugged him. “My beautiful body! I’ve missed you so much!”

 

“You’re crushing me!”

 

Stiles let go and stepped back. “Sorry, not used to your werewolf strength!”

 

“Well, if you have bruises, you’ll only have yourself to blame. Now tell me you’ve found a way to fix this.”

 

“Ok, yeah I have an idea.” He grabbed his pouch from Derek and walked over to his books. “I found a memory spell that will allow me to remember exactly what I did when I was creating the potion, that way I’ll just redo it all and we’ll have ourselves a nice body swapping potion!”

 

“Ok.” Derek crossed his arms and tried to lean back against the wall but tripped over the leg of a chair and fell to the ground.

 

“Dude! My ass!” Stiles tried really hard not to laugh.

 

Derek got back up, “How do you get anywhere in this body?”

 

Stiles beamed, happy that it wasn’t just him. “Ok, so I’ll do this spell…might take me a few tries, like I said before, I’m shit at spells! My spark isn’t exactly big enough for them but we don’t have much of a choice.” Stiles scratched the back of his head. “While I try this, you have to clean up this room,” he waved at the mess that surrounded them.

 

“Excuse me?” Derek asked.

 

“It’s part of your chores for the day. Clean this room then go over two doors down, it’s a study room and the books need to be organized alphabetically.”

 

“Why don’t I try the spell, and you clean up?”

 

“Cause the spark isn’t part of my body, it’s part of my mind.”

 

“So you get the spark and the werewolf abilities and I’m stuck in this –” he waved at the body.

 

“Hey!” Stiles protested.

 

“Whatever, just focus on your spell!”

 

Derek started picking the chairs up. “How did this place become such a mess anyways? And how come you ended up standing on a table?” he asked absentmindedly.

 

“When the snakes arrived the rest of the students kinda just bolted out of the room, knocking anything in their path, hence the its current state. I don’t know…jumping on the table felt like a good option at the time.” Stiles shrugged and went back to his spell. It wasn’t just about getting the pronunciation right, he also had to “feel” it, according to his incantations teacher …whatever that meant.

 

As Derek threw away pieces of parchment that had been scattered, a gust of wind blew through the room. Stiles felt it wrap around himself before dissipating.  

 

“HOLY SHIT!”

 

Derek looked over to his body. “Well? Did it work?”

 

“Yes! Damn! You must be good luck or something, first I actually do a body swap potion and then I manage a spell!” Stiles got up and did a little victory dance which disturbed Derek in far too many ways.

 

“Keep cleaning. I know what to do for the potion!” He sat back down and started taking out the right ingredients.

 

Derek finished putting the room back together and headed out to the study room to work on the books. Stiles stayed behind to finish his potion. For the student’s safety, the elders had blocked off the hall where the werewolf was to work so they didn’t have to worry about being found. Derek tried not to be too hurt by the fact that the elders saw him as some dangerous beast. He might not be the best at control, but it was a stereotype that irked him.

 

“It’s done!” Stiles announced as he rushed into the study room.

 

"Took you long enough.”

 

“Well, I also did the actual color changing potion while I was at it,” he scratched the back of his neck and avoided eye contact.

 

“Just give me my serving.”

 

Stiles did so and was about to cheers but Derek wasn’t having any of it. They swallowed the substance and a bit of blurred vision later, they were back in their bodies. Stiles brought his hand to the bruise under his eye and gently touched it.

 

“Man, no more than a day in my body and you managed to get in a fight!” He didn’t mean it as an insult but it hit Derek pretty hard. That was pretty much the story of his life.

 

The werewolf looked at his hands and inhaled deeply, taking in the scents around him. The world had felt so dull without them.

 

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything weird when you were in my body?” he eyed the magical teenager.

 

“No! Wait, did you?!” Stiles narrowed his eyes.

 

“No. Why would I?”

 

“Right…good point…ok so yeah we’re back in our lovely bodies…now what?”

 

“Now my two hours of chores are up.” Derek got up and unceremoniously left the room without even saying good bye.

 

Stiles returned to the previous room and collected his stuff before heading to his dorm.

 

 

Stiles [5:47pm]

-Did you clean my side of the room?

 

No response.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

That night, the Spark lied in bed and considered texting Derek again, if only to thank him for whatever had gone down with Jackson. The annoying roommate seemed to be avoiding any type of contact with him. Stiles found this much more preferable than being insulted every time he entered the room.

 

He also wanted to text Scott and ask about the pack but couldn’t think of a way of asking that didn’t involve him spilling the beans on the body swap. He would just have to ask face to face on Saturday.

 

Speaking of the devil…

 

Scott [10:07pm]

-       Hey! We’re going bowling Saturday, don’t forget to get permission from your dad!

 

Stiles [10:07pm]

-       Who’s we?

 

Scott [10:08pm]

-       My friends! You’ll love them!

 

Stiles [10:10pm]

-       Will Isaac be there?

 

Scott [10:10pm]

-       Yes! You are not allowed to embarrass me.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

On Tuesday, Stiles was proud of himself for not contacting Derek. Derek hadn’t messaged him at all since their little potion fiasco so Stiles had decided that he wouldn’t text Derek either! He was clearly displaying a very advanced maturity level. Yup.

 

On Wednesday, to reward himself for having avoided Derek the previous day, Stiles decided he would walk down the blocked off hallway that indicated the werewolf was present and working.

 

It really wasn’t to bump into Derek.

 

 

It was a shortcut to his actual destination. Which was not Derek.

 

As he headed down, a low growl had him stop dead in his tracks. The growl was quickly followed by a whimper. Of course, Stiles started running towards the animal noises, instead of away.

 

He found Derek standing in front of a glass cabinet containing multiple little jars filled with various substances.

 

“Derek?”

 

When Derek turned around, his feral blue eyes surprised Stiles. The werewolf tightly shut his eyes and when he reopened them, his usual irises were filled with pain.

 

“Derek? What happened?” Stiles approached the werewolf and saw that one of his hands was beet red and looking a little swollen.

 

“I’m supposed to clean all the glass in each classroom of this hallway but when I picked up the rag that was left behind for me to use…” Derek gave a dirty look to the rag that was now on the ground near his feet. “Wolfsbane.”

 

“Oh shit! Damn. I can think of a huge list of idiot students who could have done this, thinking it was funny. You’ll auto-heal though, right?”

 

Derek shook his head. “Wolfsbane blocks my abilities.”

 

“Dammit!” Stiles walked over to the cabinet and glanced at the labels on the jars. He took one out and opened it. “Give me your hand.” Derek looked at him suspiciously. “Just trust me!”

 

Derek let Stiles take hold of his hand and spread some dried leaves over it. The teenager whispered something that Derek didn’t understand and all of a sudden he felt a chill go through his limb. The redness quickly subsided as the pain disappeared.

 

“What…what did you just do?”

 

Stiles shrugged. “Magick.”

 

“Yeah but counteracting wolfsbane is usually a pretty violent affair.”

 

Stiles shrugged again and rubbed his hand against his cheek. He really wasn’t quite sure what he had just done; he had acted more than thought.

 

“You should probably report that.” He pointed at the rag.

 

“No. I just want to do my work and leave. I don’t want to start some kind of war!”

 

“Ok, but let me get you a new rag.” Stiles grabbed the offending cloth and left the room. He reappeared a few minutes later with a new one.

 

Derek took it and thanked him. They stared at each other, Stiles’ tongue poked up to lick is upper lip.

 

“Uh, so yeah, going to start my lovely chores now.” Derek turned around and picked up the bottle of cleaning liquid and started working.

 

Stiles swayed left and right then turned around to leave.

 

“You can stay.” Derek said, without turning around. “If you want.”

 

“Yeah!” The reply was a little too eager. “I mean I got you into this mess, I might as well keep you company.” He took a seat on a table near Derek.

 

“So how’s pack? You had a meeting?”

 

“You ever seen fight club?” the muscular teenager asked.

 

“Yup!”

 

“Well same rules apply to pack.”

 

“Ha! Ok, ok, but can we talk about Scott? Cause apparently you know him! My Scott!”

 

Derek turned around, “Yours?”

 

“Well like, not like that! He’s like my brother, you know! Best friend!”

 

“Right,” he moved on to the next glass surface.

 

“Since you can’t talk about pack things, can we talk about general wolfy things? Like what’s a lone wolf?”

 

Stiles quietly listened as Derek explained.

 

Stiles picked his nails as he asked his next question, “There was a group of werewolves with Scott on Monday, are they your pack? Could they be his pack? Like how many packs are there? Are there territories or can different packs share the same air?”

 

“Seriously? What happened to general questions? Those were pretty specific.”

 

“Crap…ok can there be more than one pack in the same territory?”

 

“Yes and no. A pack has a specific territory but sometimes there’s a friendly agreement where one pack is allowed free movement on the other pack’s land. Most of the time it’s to allow students to go to school.”

 

Stiles head bobbed as he took in the information. Derek was done cleaning their current room so they moved on to the next.

 

“What if there’s an obscure movie that’s only playing in the other’s packs territory, could you get special permission to go! OH SHIT PERMISSION!” Stiles took out his cell and texted his dad about Saturday. “Sorry about that, just remembered something. Anyway, could you?”

 

“No, territory lines are a serious thing. You can’t just go back and forth for no good reason!”

 

“But movies!”

 

“You would have to wait for it to come out on DVD.”

 

“But what if it’s an obscure movie and I want to see it on the big screen?”

 

Derek chuckled. “You’re a bit of a movie buff huh?”

 

Stiles nodded enthusiastically. “Sucks here. I can only watch them on my laptop. There’s a large TV in the rec room but…other people monopolise it.”

 

“We have a big TV, maybe you could come over one night and we could watch a movie?” Derek suggested.

 

Stiles smiled widely, “Dude! Yes!” His smile faded and a frown appeared on his face as something dawned on him, “Wait…would that be allowed? Border and all?”

 

Derek threw his head back. “No, sorry…I forgot the whole werewolf-witch thing.”

 

“It’s like we’re Romeo and Juliet!” the words spilled out of Stiles’ mouth.

 

“We are so not!” Derek slowly turned around to face Stiles but he looked more amused than anything. Stiles would get to live another day.

 

“Come on! Think about it! Ok maybe not the romance part,” he quickly added, unsure how Derek would feel about him starting to have a major crush on the werewolf, “but like, two different families who don’t like each other…or something like that. You can be Juliet.”

 

“What! How am I Juliet?”

 

“Cause I say so.”

 

Derek grabbed Stiles by the shoulder and pinned him against the wall.

 

“You’re Juliet,” he ordered, teeth exposed.

 

Stiles swallowed. “Ok! I’m Juliet.”

 

Pleased with this, Derek let go, picked up his rag and cleaner and headed to the next room.

 

“Weirdest argument ever!” Stiles declared, following behind Derek.

 

“So…uh...do you have a romantic interest?” the Spark asked.   

 

“You were me for a day, did it look like I had one?”

 

“Maybe you’re pinning for someone for afar?”

 

Derek didn’t answer. Stiles sat on a table and dangled his feet.

 

“I did notice something interesting while I was in your room…” Stiles started.

 

This got Derek’s full attention. “I thought you said you hadn’t done any weird stuff while in my body!”

 

Stiles placed his hands up defensively, “No! I saw your copy of Firefly. I love that show!”

 

Derek grunted and turned back to his work. “Yeah, my favourite part is when it gets cancelled and everyone cries about it.”

 

“Please! You even have the graphic novels. Oh man, do you have the one about Wash? Who’s your favourite? I bet it’s Jayne!”

 

“Do you ever let other people speak?”

 

“Do you ever partake in conversations? Maybe I’m just talking for the both of us.” He stuck his tongue out.

 

Derek crossed his arms.

 

“Ok yeah, I do talk a lot. Whatever.” His cell phone buzzed, he checked to see if it was a reply from his dad regarding the permission slip. “I’m meeting Scott and some of his friends, whom I’m pretty sure are other werewolves, for bowling Saturday. You should come.”

 

Derek wasn’t sure what to answer. He knew that these friends were most likely his sister and the new pack members, Isaac, Boyd and Erica.

 

“Maybe,” he eventually replied.

 

Stiles took the maybe as a win. “ Sweet! Alright big guy, I gotta go fill out a permission slip from the office so I’m allowed to go out Saturday. Have fun cleaning!” He bounced off the table and headed out of the room. He stopped in the doorway. “See you tomorrow?” he sheepishly asked.

 

Derek thought about it. Really thought about it. He could easily get rid of this guy by saying no and making it clear that they were not going to be friends…but there was something about Stiles that Derek just couldn’t shake off. There was something about the spastic teenager that he actually kind of liked. “Yeah.” He had his back turned so he didn’t see the grin that settled on Stiles’ face.

 


	7. Meadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the lovely comments!

On Wednesday, Stiles sat around doing homework while Derek set up some new furniture for the dorm rooms. He was pretty sure the witches got the items from IKEA just to torture him.

 

On Thursday, Stiles brought up bowling again. He invited Derek, again. He went on about how Scott told him that they would have to keep his magick identity a secret and anyway there might be a couple of humans as well so they wouldn’t be able to discuss the whole werewolf thing. This way there wouldn’t be any issues. The grump told him he’d think about it.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Derek paced back and forth in his bedroom. Why did he say maybe to going out Saturday?! There was no way he would be going out. It sounded like a large amount of his pack would be there with Scott and how the hell would he explain his presence. He wasn’t supposed to be hanging out with the witch…or spark…whatever.

 

“Hey, baby bro!” Cora popped her head in Derek’s room.

 

“What?”

 

“Friendly as always I see! Anyways, bowling Saturday?” She leaned against the doorframe.

 

“What?” This time it sounded more confused.

 

“The teenage part of the pack is going bowling. You should come, show them you’re not all teeth, bond with them…that sort of thing.”

 

Derek narrowed his eyes at her.

 

“Scott is bringing his childhood friend and…um…I might bring Liam.”

 

“Who’s Liam?”

 

“He’s a human…see this is why you should come! You have no idea what’s going on in anyone’s life. Please baby bro! I’m tired of having to defend your behaviour to everyone.”

 

Was this actually happening? “Fine,” he conceded. Cora’s eyebrows shot up.

 

“Seriously?” She ran away giggling before Derek could change his mind.

 

Derek cursed the universe.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----            

 

 

On Friday, Stiles was over the moon when Derek announced that he would be going since his sister was forcing him.

 

 

The spark jumped on the shuttle going from the school to town on Saturday. First, he would be going for lunch with his dad then meeting up with Scott and heading over to the bowling alley. His dad met him in the parking lot where the shuttle stopped. Knowing all too well how much his dad worried, Stiles said nothing about his difficulties at school.

 

After lunch, they headed home. Stiles hugged his jeep hello before hopping in and heading over to pick up Scott.

 

They then headed over to pick Isaac up.

 

“So is Lydia coming?”

 

Scott laughed. “No, she’s hanging out with Jackson, her boyfriend.”

 

Stiles slammed on the breaks.

 

“Holy shit Stiles!”

 

“JACKSON! NO! Stuck up? Eyebrows could have their own show? That Jackson?”

 

“I think so? You know him?”

 

“OH MY GOD!”  Stiles banged his head against the wheel. “Wait, is Lydia…not all that human?” He remembered Jackson going on and on about his girlfriend being a banshee.

 

“Um…you realise you’re stopped in the middle of the road?”

 

“It’s a residential road, no one’s around, answer my question!”

 

“It’s not really my place to tell.”

 

“Ok, you have got to stop keeping me out of the loop. I want back in the loop. Remember the loop? Things were good when I was in the loop!” He made circular motions with his hands as he spoke.

 

“Fine, you clearly already know. She’s a banshee. It’s really weird! Can we go get Isaac now?”

 

Stiles started driving again. He kept asking questions until Isaac joined them. By the time they arrived at the bowling alley, Stiles had already decided that Isaac was a bit of a prat.

 

He parked and they headed over to a small cluster of people waiting by the entrance. He recognised most of them from the group he had witnessed while occupying Derek’s body.

 

“This is Allison, Cora, Liam, Erica and her boyfriend Boyd,” Scott made the introductions. “Guys, this is Stiles, my best friend!” He slung his arm around said best friend’s shoulders, “He’s super smart so he goes to this fancy boarding school instead of slumming it in regular high school with the rest of us.”

 

They exchanged hellos. Stiles noticed Cora giving little smiles to Liam, clearly something was going on there. They were going to head in but Cora stopped them, advising that Derek was also coming.

 

“Are you serious?” Boyd asked.

 

“Yes. He’s pa- ” She quickly looked at Liam and Stiles, “family. He’s family. Give him a chance.”

 

Stiles bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything. A black Camaro drove into the parking lot.

 

Derek parked and got out. Stiles tried to control his smile. Derek headed over to the group but stopped in his tracks, eyes widening. He pointed violently in Allison’s direction and started walking towards her.

 

“What’s the murderer doing here?” He demanded.

 

Allison brought her hands to her mouth.

 

“Derek!” Cora was appalled; “It’s not her fault she’s related to…well…she hasn’t done anything wrong!”

 

“Are you seriously associating with that?” He waved at Allison. Stiles wondered if he was the only one that was properly confused.

 

“I’ll just leave,” Feeling uncomfortable, Allison looked at her feet.

 

“No!” Erica and Scott shouted together.

 

Isaac agreed with them, “You’ve done nothing wrong. You shouldn’t be the one to leave.” He gave Derek a pointed look.

 

The rest of the werewolves joined in, giving death glares to the late arrival. Liam looked as confused as Stiles.Cora just looked sad.

 

Derek threw his hands in the air, “Fine! I’m out!” He turned around and walked back to his car. Stiles ran after him, Scott ran after Stiles.

 

“What are you doing, dude?” Scott grabbed a hold of Stiles shoulder and stopped him. “Don’t feel bad for that guy, he’s messed up man. Come on, let’s go inside.”

 

“What? No! Derek is – “

 

“You know him?” Now Scott was the confused on.

 

Derek unlocked his Camaro and got in.

 

Stiles shook free of Scott’s hold, “Yeah, I know him ok – it’s a long story. You guys aren’t being fair.” He started walking towards the car but it was too late. Derek was already driving off. Stiles considered getting in to his jeep and driving after him.

 

“Stiles! I haven’t seen you in ages, come on!” Scott pleaded.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

While they bowled, Cora had been rather candid about what had happened to her family. She informed Liam and Stiles that Allison’s aunt had set fire to their house a couple of years ago. Their mom and two younger siblings had died. Allison told everyone that her family had disowned her aunt, who was now missing. They hadn’t seen her since. No one mentioned anything about werewolves or hunters.

 

Stiles slept over at Scott’s that night and then went for breakfast with his dad who drove him back to the school afterwards.

 

“Be good,” the Sheriff requested as his son exited the car.

 

“You know me,” Stiles smiled.

 

“That’s the problem.”

 

“I’ll be good if you eat healthy.”

 

“I’ll take that deal, but if I get a call about you being in trouble, I’m ordering a double pepperoni pizza!”

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

  

Derek was lying in bed with large headphones on, blasting music to drown out the outside world. He was determined to spend Sunday dead to everything. This is, of course, why he didn’t hear his phone buzz. It was sitting in the pocket of his leather jacket, which was draped over a chair across the room.

 

Around 2pm, Cora entered the room, grabbed a book from Derek’s desk and threw it at him. The object landed right on the target’s chest.

 

“Hey!” Derek shot up in his bed and slid his headphones off. “What!”

 

“Not everyone likes your taste in music! I have been patient all day, and trust me I’m not the only one in this family who is losing it! Either stop listening to your music or take it to the woods!”

 

“Fine!”

 

Cora stormed off and Derek got up. He grabbed his coat and left his music behind. When he got outside he shoved his hands in his pockets and took his phone out. He looked at the time and noticed he had a missed text.

 

Stiles [11:52am]

-       Meadow. 1:30pm.

 

It was currently 1:58pm. Derek didn’t care. Nope. He would go for his walk in the woods and not aim for the meadow. Not in any way.

 

He arrived at the edge of the clearing around quarter past two. Stiles was lying in the middle of it and wearing a red hoodie. He was listening to music and drumming his stomach.

 

Derek took a seat beside Stiles. The teenager, whose eyes were shut, continued to be oblivious to the werewolf’s presence and hummed as he started a drum solo in the air.

 

“You’re ridiculous.”

 

“AAAAAH!” Stiles sat up and clutched his chest, faking a heart attack. “Oh god! My life! It’s flashing before my eyes! It’s so boring!” He gasped for air. “I can’t die a virgin!” He froze mid-charade, realising what he had just said. “Can we scratch that last thing from the record?”

 

“Nope. You’re dying a virgin,” Derek waved at Stiles, “Continue.”

 

“Yeah, no. Moment’s over. Stop sneaking up on me!”

 

“And miss out on your horrid acting abilities?”

 

Stiles stuck his tongue out, “So…yesterday… wanna talk about it?”

 

Derek figured his sister had told him the story. She, unlike him, was able to talk about it…a little too much in his opinion. “No.”

 

“Ok,” Stiles nodded and lied back down on the grass. “Isaac’s a prat. Boyd’s a bit scary, definitely the strong silent type. Erica is pretty amazing! I’m thinking she could be my Catwoman. Your sister is really sweet, complete opposite of you but she has the same sarcastic sense of humour you have.”

 

Derek grunted.

 

“What do you think of Liam?” Stiles asked.

 

Derek lay down beside him, “I don’t know who that is.”

 

“The guy dating your sister!”

 

“Oh. I didn’t know she was seeing anyone.”

 

“We need to work on your social skills. First lesson, don’t call anyone a murderer! Unless they are an actual murder obviously, but like, if they’re just related to a murderer – maybe don’t call them that.”

 

“She’s a hunter.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Her family. They’re hunters. They kill supernatural creatures all the time. It was my understanding that her family had forbidden her to hang out with anyone from the pack…guess she’s not all that great at listening.”

 

“How come…” Stiles wanted to ask why the hunters weren’t trying to kill Derek’s family but was pretty sure that question wouldn’t go down so well. “How come they aren’t killing the witches?” He felt this was a safer question.

 

“The coven instructing you hasn’t killed any innocent human. The hunters live by a code and only go after supernatural beings they feel have violated their code.”

 

Stiles didn’t know how to respond without bringing up the whole family fire thing.  He pointed up at the sky, “Elephant.”

 

“No.”

 

“What? It totally looks like and elephant.”

 

“No, we are not lying in a meadow and identifying shapes in the clouds!”

 

“What if I said that me and my mom did it when she was still alive?” Stiles asked.

 

“Still no.”

 

Silence passed.

 

“Did you?” Derek finally questioned.

 

“Did I what?”

 

“Did you and your mom do the whole cloud game thing?”

 

“Nah, I just wanted to see if I could guilt trip you into playing it with me.”

 

Derek chuckled, “You’re awful.”

 

“So I’m told,” Stiles titled his head to smile at Derek.

 

They lay in a comfortable silence for a bit, but it wasn’t long before Stiles started talking again.

 

“You’ve survived your first week of punishment! Three more to go!”

 

“It’s not that bad, except for this one annoying student who keeps breaking the rules and hanging out in the same room I’m working in.”

 

“Can’t be that bad.”

 

“It’s not that bad when he brings homework, then he’s too busy concentrating to constantly talk.”

 

“I hear he’s pretty hot!” Stiles joked.

 

“He does have a rather distracting oral fixation, he’s constantly chewing on his pens.”

 

Stiles turned around and propped himself on his elbows. He cocked an eyebrow as Derek tried to control his blush. “You think my mouth is distracting?”

 

“It is constantly talking! I don’t think it knows how to shut up.”

 

“Nope! Not letting you take back the sexy comment you just made about my mouth.”

 

“It was not sexy! All I said is that it was distracting. Werewolf hearing, remember? The biting noises are off-putting.”

 

Stiles poked his shoulder, “Nope.”

 

Derek looked at the offending finger and growled. He pushed Stiles over and straddled him, letting his werewolf teeth show.

 

“Oh no! Someone help me! The big bag wolf!” Stiles drawled sarcastically.

 

“Yeah, Little Red, you’re in trouble now.”

 

Stiles poked, actually poked, one of Derek’s fangs.

 

Derek blinked.

 

“Are they still called fangs if you’re a werewolf or is that just a vampire thing?” Stiles asked.

 

Derek sat up, still straddling the Spark but supporting his weight on his own legs as to not crush him.

 

“Who the hell pokes a werewolf’s fangs?!”

 

“So they are fangs? Cool! Can you shift into full werewolf? I wanna see!” Stiles absent-mindedly placed his hands on Derek’s hips. Derek stared at them. Stiles quickly removed them.

 

The werewolf got off and sat beside the boy. “I’m not shifting.”

 

“Why not? You don’t need it to be the full moon, right?”

 

“No, I don’t…but I have some control issues when I’m fully shifted…” Derek looked at his feet.

 

“I’m not scared.”

 

“You should be.”

 

Stiles sat up as well and picked at the cord of his hoodie.  He chuckled.

 

“What?” Derek asked.

 

“Little Red? I’m wearing a red hoodie!”

 

Derek softly shook his head. “You’re an idiot.”

 

“With distracting lips,” as if to prove his point Stiles licked them.

 

“I’m never going to hear the end of it, huh?”

 

“I never get compliments! I’m holding onto this one.”

 

“It wasn’t a compliment!”

 

“Sure, sure,” Stiles licked his lips again.

 

“Stop doing that!”

 

“Make me!”

 

Without thinking, Derek brought his lips to the Spark’s. There was a moment where both forgot how to breathe. Deciding to just go for it, Stiles pushed into the kiss. He licked Derek’s bottom lip, causing the older boy to gasp and allowing Stiles’ tongue entry. They kept their hands to themselves but the kiss deepened nonetheless. Tongues brushing against each other, taking turns exploring.

Stiles’ backed out of the kiss, needing some air. Derek lightly bit his lip before letting him go. They stared at each other, pupils blown wide, both unsure with what had just transpired.

 

All emotion disappeared from Derek’s face as he caught a scent.

 

“You need to go,” he got up, “My dad is in the area,” it came out as a whisper.

 

“Oh f-!” Stiles got up and ran out of the meadow, he stopped at the edge of the trees and turned around to wave good-bye. Derek responded with a shooing motion.


	8. Lumberjack fantasy

Moments after Stiles had ran off, Derek’s dad found him alone in the meadow. “Derek, it’s time to come back home. We need to talk,” his tone was cold, disappointed.

 

Derek’s panicked heartbeat did nothing to help him feign innocence.

 

“Dad…please, we did nothing wrong…well…”

 

Stiles did cross the border a few times and that was a definite no-no but it’s not like they were hurting anyone!

 

“We? Please tell you didn’t have another pack member help you steal your sisters’ things?”

 

“What?” Derek had no idea what was going on. “I didn’t take anyone’s things!”

 

“Son. The jig is up! I found some of Cora and Laura’s stuff under your bed..”

 

“What stuff? You went through my stuff?”

 

“You clearly went through theirs first. We simply followed their scent. Perhaps I should be glad that you’re not a very good thief, but why would you take their things? Laura’s favourite book? Cora’s bear? I must say I’m a little torn about you hiding Cora’s tiny, little purple shirt that I highly disapprove of…maybe we can pretend that item is still missing.”

 

“Can we just back this up for a second, I didn’t take their things!”

 

Mr. Hale crossed his arms, “Then how, pray tell, do you explain them winding up under your bed?”

 

“I don’t know! Magic? It wasn’t me!”

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----            

 

 

Stiles laid in his bed, wide awake. He had kissed Derek Hale! Derek Hale had kissed him! He needed to tell someone, hell, he wanted to tell the world! He settled with texting Scott...but he didn’t specify that it was Derek. He wasn’t too sure what was going on between Scott and Derek and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with Scott telling him Derek was bad news.

 

Instead, he altered the truth a little bit and told Scott that he had kissed this hunky chunk of meat named Miguel.

 

After a few texts gushing about Miguel, Scott started gushing back about Isaac. Stiles rolled his eyes at his cell phone, but in reality he was really happy to have his best friend back.

 

Eventually, Scott said good night since it was way past his bedtime but sleep wasn’t something Stiles couldn’t seem to do at that moment. He looked over at Jackson’s bed, his roommate was sound asleep under the comforters. Since it was way past curfew, Stiles couldn’t go to the library. He grabbed a spell book and went over the dorm’s rec room.

 

He took a seat on the couch and gazed longingly at the TV. For once, it wasn’t being used by someone else…but no, it would make too much noise and he actually managed to go a full week without getting into trouble, he wanted to keep the streak going.

 

He opened his textbook and dragged his finger down the index. What could he practice tonight?

 

 

 

He finally dragged himself back to his dorm room and fell asleep around 4am.

 

 

 

This, of course, meant that he was dragging himself from classroom to classroom the next day, doing a pretty good imitation of a zombie. By his last class, he was in desperate need of a nap. When the day was over, he drifted to his room and fell into bed.

 

He was woken up by the sound of a door slamming. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands.

 

“You’re going to miss dinner,” Jackson instructed, sitting down at his desk and turning on his MacBook.

 

Stiles eyed the boy suspiciously, “Are you actually being nice to me?”

 

“No. I want you out so I can Skype my girlfriend.”

 

“Say hi to her for me!” He bolted out of the room before the other boy had time to answer.

 

It was only when he was sitting in the Dining Hall, plate of food in front of him, that he realised he had missed Derek doing his chores.

 

He took his phone out and texted the werewolf, explaining that he had fallen asleep after class due to a late night of studying.

 

He waited all evening for a reply that never came.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

On Tuesday, word spread quickly amongst the young witches that the werewolf would be working in the garden that afternoon. Some were placing bets as to whether or not the animal would come in contact with something poisonous while others speculated on which window would be best to get a good look at him.

 

For Stiles, this meant that he would not get the chance to interact with Derek.

 

Stiles [1:26pm]

-       Hey, so you’re gonna be pretty out in the open for chores today

 

Stiles [1:26pm]

-       Wanna meet up afterwards?

 

While waiting for the reply, Stiles tried his best to pay attention during his Latin lesson.

 

Derek [2:51pm]

-       No

 

Well that was a rather straightforward rejection.

 

Derek [2:52pm]

-       I have a pack meeting

Oh. Stiles bit his lip then brought his fingers to them, trying to remember how Derek’s had felt.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

By Wednesday, Stiles was pretty sure he was going mad. It was day three since The kiss. _It was only a kiss!_ He argued with himself. _It felt so good._ He shook his head; he really needed to stop thinking about it. Derek had been rather silent on the texting front, not that he was ever really talkative. Stiles pulled his hair, he was obsessing over one kiss with a guy he hadn’t known for more than a month!

 

_Maybe it had meant nothing to Derek? Although Derek had initiated it…wait, what if I forced him into it with my witch powers? Can I do that? No…no, I can’t do that. Maybe I should text him again. No. Don’t be needy. I’ll just find him later when he’s here. Yeah. Ok. Good plan me._

 

This plan was instantly squashed when rumour had it that Derek would be working outside – again.

 

Around 4:30pm, the Spark headed towards his dorm. He stopped in the west hallway, curious as to why all the students were gawking out the window. Most were girls, giggling madly. He fought his way to the front of a window to see what the commotion was all about.

 

There was Derek, shirtless, wielding an axe and chopping some wood. It was a very sunny afternoon and beads of sweat were making his skin glisten. _Damn_. Stiles pulled his cell out before he could stop himself.

 

Stiles [4:13pm]

-       The lumberjack look suits you.

 

He saw Derek pause in his work, take his phone out, check the message and place the object back in his pocket. He didn’t reply and Stiles was too far to tell if any expression had settled on the guys face.

 

Only a couple of minutes passed before a teacher walked up to Derek and exchanged some words. There were quite a few disappointed sounds when Derek put his shirt back on. Most of the students moved on. A few girls stayed behind, enjoying the view regardless.

 

_Sorry ladies_ , Stiles thought, _he plays for the other team! Or maybe he plays for both? Maybe he doesn’t play for my team at all and the kiss was a fluke! Shut up brain!_

 

Stiles couldn’t handle it. He left his spot at the window and moved on. He decided to go to the library. After checking his phone more than nine times in five minutes he shoved it in his bag. Derek was obviously not going to answer him. Ten minutes passes before he fished it out and checked again. He was getting no work done! He opted to pack up and headed for his room.

 

He shoved his cell under his pillow and looked around. His eyes fell on his pile of dirty clothes…now was a good a time as ever to do laundry.

 

He dragged his hamper full of clean clothes back to his room. He sat on his bed and grabbed his phone from under the pillow. Holding his breath, he checked for any missed texts.

 

Derek [5:04pm]

-       Meet at the river at 6?

 

Stiles heart did NOT skip a beat.

 

Stiles [5:47pm]

-       yup

_Good, good. Nonchalant._

 

He looked down at what he was wearing and decided to change into a less ratty shirt. He fiddled with his hair a bit, going for the just-got-out-of-bed-but-looking -awesome look. He took a deep breath and headed out.

 

 

 

 

Derek climbed out of the river. He felt sweaty and gross after the manual labour and had jumped in to freshen up. He picked up his phone, which he had placed on a nearby rock. Stiles would be here soon. He put his shoes on and was in the process of tying his laces when his phone buzzed rapidly, indicating a call instead of a text.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Derek! Derek, holy shit! Derek I can see it!” Absolute happiness was emitting from the voice. “I’m a real boy! Witch. Whatever, you get the reference, maybe. Whatever! I can see it! Derek I can see the border!”

 

“I’ll be right there,” Derek hung up.

 

He found Stiles on the other side of the border, mid celebratory-dance.

 

“I can see the border! I can see the border!” He sang, shaking his hips ludicrously.

 

“Good for you,” the sullen voice indicated its presence.

 

“I’ve been practicing so hard! Eeeeeee! Look, look!” Stiles picked up a leaf from the ground and whispered something. It levitated in his hand. “Levitation!” He announced proudly. “Ok, really it’s more of a gravity bending thing but still, how cool is that! Also, I can only do it with really light objects…but apparently my spark is growing, or blooming, or something. I can see the border! I am magickal!” He raised his hands in the air, triumphantly. The leaf softly fell to the ground.

 

Derek smiled sadly.

 

Realization was a bitch.

 

Stiles hands fell to his side and he swayed on the balls of his feet, “Oh.”

 

“Congrats,” Derek voiced.

 

“Maybe we can meet in the outside world? On weekends? You still have a couple weeks of punishment so it’s not like we’ll never see each other. We’ll just have to meet like normal people or something…you know…not in a secret meadow.” Stiles could no longer cross the border as he pleased.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Derek didn’t express any emotion. “See you around.” He turned to leave.

 

“No! Wait!”

 

“What?”

 

“Can we just talk…about the kiss…” Stiles bit his bottom lip and scratched the back of his head.

 

“Nothing to talk about. Hormonal teenagers experiment all the time. It didn’t mean anything,” with that said, Derek walked away.

 

 

 

Stiles felt too crushed to seek out the werewolf on Thursday.

 

 

On Friday, the school was buzzing with word about the elders going to a meeting at the werewolf house. This made Stiles’ stomach do weird things and he asked to be excused for the rest of the day. Since this was the first time he ever complained about being ill, he was allowed to return to his room, where he promptly hid under the covers. 


	9. Joke's on you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I can't get over all your comments on the last chapter, you guys are the best! ♥‿♥

A knock at the door advised Stiles that the world did not agree with him remaining dead to it. He fell out of bed, and sauntered over to see who it was.

 

He stood up straight when he opened the door and came face to face with an elder.

 

“Elder Kain,” he greeted, freaked out.

 

“Mr Stilinski, if you could please freshen up and head to the summoning room. We have matters to discuss.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“Do calm down, I assure you, you are in no trouble,” the Elder reassured and walked away. 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles sat alone in the summoning room, nervously bouncing his leg up and down.

 

His dad walked in. _Oh shit!_

 

“Son,” the sheriff took a seat beside Stiles. The five elders entered the room and sat across from them.

 

“Thank you for coming,” Elder Kain started. “As I’ve mentioned over the phone, Stiles is not in any trouble. An issue has arisen and his…cooperation...has been requested.”

 

“I feel it is important to note from the start, the issue is with the werewolves,” Elder Morgana specified.

 

“Not with the werewolves, more like it is the werewolves who are having an issue and require help,” Elder Seefa tried to clarify but this did not to relieve the sheriff’s confusion.

 

Mr. Stilinski squinted his eyes and scrunched up his face as he looked from one elder to the other, “Can we please get to the point?”

 

Elder Kain cleared his throat, “As you know, our land borders that of a werewolf pack. We’ve met with their leader earlier today. They appear to be having an issue of a magickal nature and require the assistance of a witch. We simply do not have the time to aid in such trivial things so we suggested they use the help from one of our students.”

 

“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Mr. Stilinski frowned.

 

Stiles had no idea what was going on.

 

Elder Kain continued, “It is nothing of great danger. They believe they have a trickster spirit in their home. These can often only be seen by magickal beings, a werewolf’s power is too…rudimental. We suggested they have one our student’s stay over for a couple of days. If they indeed have some form of trickster spirit or being in their home, the student will be able to identify it and we can go from there.”

 

“And you want my son to be that student?”

 

“He has already mildly interacted with one of their pack members,” Elder Gwaine admitted. “They felt it best to have the same student attend their home. They wish to keep the contact between our students and their pack members to a minimum. This is something we agreed was indeed best even though Stiles wasn’t our first choice.”

 

“Wait! Setting aside the fact that I’m pretty sure you just managed to insult my son and ask for his help at the same time – you’re telling me that he has already interacted with a werewolf? Why wasn’t I notified of this?”

 

“Dad – ”

 

“No, I was told you would be kept safe here. Playing around with a werewolf isn’t what I would call safe!”

 

“It was a brief interaction, they barely spoke to each other. It only occurred once,” Elder Gwaine tried to explain.

 

“I should have been advised that this had happened. Now, I’m assuming I’m here because you need my consent to send my only child into a house of werewolves. Well, you don’t have it.”

 

“Dad!”

 

“No. It’s not safe.”

 

“It’s true, it is not without risk,” Elder Kain agreed. “We would be sending him with a hidden supply of mountain ash. If he feels threatened, he can use it to trap the werewolves and get away.”

 

“Oh yeah, ‘cause that’s helping me change my mind!” The sheriff wasn’t having any of this.

 

“Do I get a say in this?” Stiles asked. Every adult in the room responded with a firm no. The teenager crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

 

“Mr. Stilinski, your son has been showing great progress. We believe that this would be a good experience for him. It could push him into further developing his powers.”

 

“I want a moment alone with my son.”

 

The elders nodded and left the room.

 

“Please! Dad! Please! I’ll be the talk of the school, a legend, the boy who played with the wolves!” Not to mention he would get to see Derek.

 

“Stiles. It’s risky.”

 

“No, it’s fine! They’re obviously civilized werewolves. It’s only for two days.”

 

Stiles’ dad rubbed his temples, “Fine.”

 

Stiles jumped out of his chair.

 

“But! You are calling me every night as proof of life. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes, thanks dad! Best father ever!”

 

“And you keep the mountain ash thing on you at all times.”

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles packed his things. He was to head over right away and return late Sunday afternoon. Small bottles of mountain ash were sewn into a few items of clothing, including his favourite red hoodie – to which he objected to! It better not ruin it!

 

Elder Seefa walked him to the border where they met the Hale alpha. Stiles then set off with Mr. Hale.

 

“Thank you for agreeing to help,” the alpha voiced as they walked along the stream Stiles was pretending not to know. “My family will be present for dinner. They will be the only pack members you will meet. This is for both our protection.”

 

Stiles wanted to say that he already knew them, but opted to bite his tongue. He was nervous. “Yes sir,” was all he responded.

 

“No need to call me sir. My name is Thomas.”

 

“Ok…Thomas…can I call you Mr. Hale? You kinda get used to formalities at the boarding school.”

 

“Of course. Hale was my wife’s name. She was the pack’s original alpha and our customs state that the Alpha’s named is carried by the family,” he explained, trying to help Stiles feel more at ease by opening up to him. He could feel the teenager’s nervousness and wanted him to know he was safe.

 

“Huh. That’s pretty neat. So it keeps the legacy going?”

 

“Exactly. I was told that you were quite a curious student. You enjoy learning?”

 

“Yeah, well I’m a bit of a late bloomer so I’ve been trying to catch up.”

 

Stiles walked with his hands shoved in his pockets and felt his phone buzz, indicating a slew of incoming texts. Mr. Hale heard the sound, “You can check your texts. You’re not a prisoner. I have a daughter your age, she’s glued to that device,” Mr. Hale smiled softly; he had similar dimples to Derek.

 

Derek [5:21pm]

-       Laura just told me

Derek [5:22pm]

-       We need to pretend we don’t know each other!

 

Derek [5:22pm]

-       Or we’ll get in trouble

 

Derek [5:22pm]

-       Don’t even talk to me when we’re alone

 

Derek [5:22pm]

-       Werewolf hearing, no privacy

 

Well this was going to be fun.

 

Stiles [5:23pm]

-       How do you jerkoff?

 

Derek [5:23pm]

-       Seriously? You’re coming to my house for two days and that’s what you ask?

 

Stiles didn’t bother replying.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Since Stiles was the guest, he was sat at the end of the table during dinner. Mr. Hale sat opposite from him. Cora and Laura were to his left, and Derek, ignoring him entirely, was on his right.

 

“I’ve actually met Stiles before,” Cora announced, helping herself to some boiled carrots. “He’s friends with Scott.”

 

“Oh really?” Mr. Hale tilted his head.

 

“Uh, yes sir. We’re childhood friends.”

 

“No need to call me sir.”

 

“Meat?” Stiles grinned, passing the plate of sliced roast beef over to Derek. Derek gave him a look and took the plate without saying a word.

 

“Don’t mind my little brother. He’s not the best with social interactions,” Laura smiled. “He won’t actually bite.”

 

Stiles snorted. “So how is this going to work? Do I just walk around until I spot whatever it is I’m supposed to be spotting?” He took a bite of the roast beef and pointed at it with his fork, “Oh man, this is delicious!”

 

“Thank you,” Laura smiled again. “See, I am a good cook!” She directed this to Derek who didn’t reply.

 

“The main activity seems to be in Derek’s room.”

 

Stiles paled.

 

“Don’t worry,” Laura chuckled. “Derek has kindly agreed to allow you free access to his room.”

 

“You are, of course, welcome to wander around the rest of the house as you wish. We’ve prepared one of the spare rooms for you to sleep in.”

 

Stiles wondered how many spare rooms they had. This was quite a large house for only four family members. The thought that they were probably quite a large family before the fire saddened him.

 

“What’s wrong?” Cora asked as she cleared the table for dessert. Derek had tried to excuse himself, stating he didn’t want any but one look from his dad had him sitting right back down. Apparently communicating through looks ran in the family.

 

“Nothing,” Stiles replied.

 

“You’ll have to forgive my daughter, we don’t often have non-werewolves in our home and she seems to have forgotten that others do not share our ability to sense emotions. We will do our best to ignore anything we sense from you and give you your privacy.”

 

“Can all werewolves do that,” Stiles asked, “sense emotions?”

 

“Those born can. Those turned by a bite must learn how.”

 

“Neat.” Stiles wasn’t sure why werewolves had such a bad reputation, they seemed quite lovely.

 

 

After dessert, Derek disappeared into his room while Stiles was given a tour of the house.

 

“Well, make yourself at home. I’m going for my evening run. Laura? Cora? Will you be joining me?”

 

The daughters happily agreed and left Stiles alone in the living room. He walked around the main floor for a little bit until he was pushed brutally up against a wall, arm twisted behind his back.

 

“Why would you agree to this?” Derek snarled in his ear.

 

“Get off!” Stiles tried to break free but only managed once Derek let go.

 

“It wasn’t my idea! And what is wrong with you? Why do you feel the need to be such a dick all of a sudden?!” Stiles massaged his shoulder.

 

“We can’t be friends Stiles! We can’t be anything. Get that through your head,” Derek poked the side of Stiles head.

 

“Why? Explain to me why. Sure, you’re a werewolf and I’m a witch, who gives a fuck! I thought we were getting along. I made lame jokes, you rolled your eyes…Derek we even k-”

 

“Will you get over that! You’re acting like it was your first kiss. It meant nothing, ok,” Derek turned around and started walking away.

 

“I don’t believe you. Are you just extra grouchy because we’re nearing your time of the month?”

 

Derek froze and slowly turned around. He quickly walked back up to Stiles and pinned him against the wall again. This time they were facing each other and Derek crashed his lips against Stiles. This kiss was the completely opposite of their last one. It was rough, bordering on violent. Derek soon backed away. Stiles could tell that his lips were swelling up from the force of the kiss.

 

“See! It means nothing.”

 

“What is your problem!” Stiles shouted. “I swear if you pull the everyone around me dies card - ”

 

“What the hell would you know about that! Don’t pretend like you know me!”

 

“You forget I lost a relative too. I know what it’s like to feel guilty!”

 

“ONE! You lost one relative. I lost eight and it was my fault. Their deaths are on me. All because I was your age and trusted someone older,” Derek inhaled a shaky breath, it was the first time he had said that out loud.

 

Stiles took a step forward and Derek stuck his hand out to stop him from approaching. He left the room and ran to the sanctuary of his bedroom.

 

 

Stiles let him go and decided to come up with a plan.

 

 

An hour later, the rest of the family had returned. With them back in the house, Stiles ventured towards Derek’s bedroom. He knocked on the door.

 

“What.”

 

Stiles opened the door and walked in. He sat at the desk. Derek was lying on his bed.

 

“Hey, so I’m Stiles. We met at my school, remember? I’m the one that got you in trouble? Sorry about that.”

 

Death glare.

 

He grabbed his phone.

 

Stiles [8:47pm]

-       It’s a bit suspicious if you don’t respond.

 

Derek [8:48pm]

-       It really isn’t.

                                                         

“So I hear you’re the primary target of this jokester thing.”

 

Further death glare.

 

“Do you know why he’s targeting you? Or she.”

 

Annoyed glare. Improvement.

 

Stiles bit his lip.

 

Derek [8:52pm]

-       Stop that.

 

Stiles looked confused for a moment then it hit him.

 

Stiles [8:53pm]

-       Which one of us really has the mouth fixation?

 

His tongue darted out and curled up to lip his top lip before slowly returning inside his mouth.

 

A huff of laughter escaped Derek’s mouth.

 

Derek [8:55pm]

-       You need to work on being sexy

 

Stiles [8:55pm]

-       But you think I could be sexy, I’ll take that as a win.

 

“What’s it been doing anyways? I didn’t get that many details,” Stiles vocalised.

 

“What?”

 

Stiles [8:56pm]

-       You need to work on multi-tasking.

 

“The thing, that’s been haunting you or whatever. What has it been doing?” he clarified.

 

“It started by taking my sisters’ things and hiding them in my room.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Stiles nodded vigorously, “maybe it’s trying to get you guys to talk.”

 

Back to the death glare.

 

“Anything else? Or just general klepto issues?”

 

“Stealing. Moving things around. Tripping us. Messing with the alarms, the water heater, the lights.”

 

“Sounds annoying.”

 

Derek leaned across his bed and grabbed his headphones, which he promptly put on.

 

“Good talk,” Stiles crossed his arms and considered not finding the trickster just to let it continue annoying Derek. After an hour of not witnessing anything strange, he got up and headed to the guest room.

 

He crossed Laura down the hall. “Don’t feel bad,” she said, “You’ve got him to say more words to you than he does to anyone else combined on a weekly basis!”

 

“I think I’m going to go to bed.”

 

“Alright, good night Stiles. Thank you for helping us.”

 

 

 

He entered the room that had been allotted to him and opened his bag. He grabbed his PJs and quickly changed before heading over to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He returned, closed the door behind him and crawled under the covers. He smothered his face with a pillow and stopped himself from yelling into it. He called his dad to tell him he was ok and then placed his cell on the nightstand beside the bed and eyed it. He made a few aborted motions to grab it. He snatched decisively and texted Scott.

 

Stiles [10:28pm]

-       I’m at the Hale house!

 

Scott [10:33pm]

-       I know! Are you an idiot?

 

Stiles [10:34pm]

-       Ha. Ha. They needed a witches help, it’s a great honour!

 

Scott [10:34pm]

-       More like a death sentence hanging out with Derek

 

Stiles [10:34pm]

-       Well then you should come over to protect me tomorrow, they have an xbox

 

Scott [10:35pm]

-       Pretty sure they wouldn’t appreciate that

 

Scott [10:36pm]

-       And anyways Isaac’s been told to stay away for the weekend

 

Scott [10:36pm]

-       He usually spends it with them, training. So we’re spending it together instead

 

Stiles [10:37pm]

-       Give me a second while I puke

 

Scott [10:38pm]

-       Shut up! I’m going to bed, I’ll call you tomorrow

 

Stiles placed his phone back on the stand. He lied on his back, arms stretched out, enjoying the large bed.

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Derek rolled over onto his stomach. He didn’t feel much like sleeping. The faint scent of Stiles lingered in his room. He shouldn’t have let the witch get close to him in the first place. He closed his eyes and focused on the hearts beating throughout the house. He identified his dad’s, downstairs, still awake. Laura’s and Cora’s in their individual bedrooms, both falling asleep.

 

He couldn’t stop himself from listening in on Stiles’ heartbeat. It was erratic, fast. Derek dug his nails into the palm of his hands to stop himself from rushing over and checking if the boy was ok – he had already made that mistake and look how it ended up!

 

His phone buzzed and he propped himself up to take a look.

 

Stiles [10:48pm]

-       Good night.

 

He didn’t respond but he heard Stiles’ heart beat calm down. The soft drumming eased him into slumber.

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles got up, got dressed and headed downstairs.

 

“Good morning. You just missed the girls; they headed out to do some shopping. I’ve saved you some breakfast,” Mr. Hale grabbed a plate of pancakes from the oven where they were being kept warm.

 

Stiles sat at the table and scratched the back of his head, “Sorry, I guess I kinda slept in.”

 

Mr. Hale chuckled, “Stiles, you’re a teenage boy. It’s expected. Derek himself is just waking up now. You eat up, I have some errands to run. I’ll be back around lunch time.”

 

Mr. Hale grabbed his keys and headed out.

 

Stiles poured syrup all over his pancakes and took a mouthful.

 

Derek waddled into the kitchen, still half asleep and in his PJs.

 

“You’re still here,” he observed as he opened the fridge and grabbed the orange juice.

 

“Ot a ob oo oo.”

 

“What?” Derek gabbed a glass and turned to look at Stiles.

 

The Spark swallowed his pancakes and tried again, “I got a job to do! Pour me some of that will ya?” He pointed in the direction of the orange juice with his fork, then stabbed his pancakes.

 

Derek rolled his eyes and grabbed a second glass. Juice poured, he peaked into the oven to find that a second plate has been placed aside for him as well. He brought everything over to the table and sat across from Stiles.

 

“Oh, no fair! How come your stack is so much bigger than mine?”

 

“Werewolf,” was the only explanation he received.

 

“So are you in a better mood today or are you going to shove me up against something and maul my mouth again?”

 

Derek winced, “Yeah, sorry about that…I shouldn’t have done that.”

 

“No, you really shouldn’t have! That was bad. Bad Derek.” Stiles looked down at his empty plate and pouted. He looked sideways at Derek’s plate and tried to subtly approach his fork from it. It was smacked away.

 

“Mine!” Derek declared.

 

Stiles’ face drooped as he gave the werewolf a sad puppy look.

 

“Oh for crying out loud, one! You get one more!” Derek transferred one pancake from his plate to Stiles’. The boy grinned victoriously and poured more syrup on top of it.

 

When he was done eating his last pancake, Stiles got up and walked over to the sink. He placed his fork down and eyed the gooey syrup left in the plate. He tilted his head back and angled the plate so that the substance trickled off of it and into his mouth.

 

“Why?” Derek pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

“Oh, trust me, that was all for my own benefit!” Stiles smacked his lips a couple of times and placed his plate in the sink. He leaned back against the counter, “Now, to be serious, I accept your apology about yesterday. You really shouldn’t have done that, mauled me like that. It wasn’t ok! I can deal with your mood swings but I simply will not be mauled! Our second kiss should have been as nice as the first.”

 

Knowing that he was in the wrong and happy to have his apology accepted, Derek didn’t respond to Stiles’ comment. He finished his pancakes and got up. He brought his plate to the sink, reaching around Stiles to do so.

 

“You have syrup on your lip,” he hesitated before leaning in to gently suck it off of Stiles’ bottom lip. He stepped back and observed Stiles’ look of shock. The bambi eyes looked at him with wonder, pleading for more. 

 

Derek left the kitchen.

 

“No! Come back!”

 

“I have homework to do,” at with that the sourwolf ran up the stairs.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----

 

 

Stiles shrieked at the top of his lungs.

 

Derek almost killed himself running down the stairs to get to him. He entered the living room in full werewolf form, ready to attack.

 

“Spider!!!” Stiles shouted. He turned around and saw Derek. “Oh cool! Yes! Werewolf, attack!” He turned back to point at the spider on the wall.

 

Derek rolled his eyes and walked forward, still shifted.  He extended his hand towards the spider.

 

“Yes! Kill it! Stab it with your claw! Killlll!” Stiles encouraged.

 

Instead, Derek coaxed it onto his hand.

 

“No! What are you doing! It comes to us straight from Hell! It must be destroyed!”

 

Derek turned around to bring the spider outside. With all the commotion (read: Stiles yelling) he hadn’t noticed his sisters return. They were standing in the entrance way, Cora with a smiling going from ear to ear and Laura in werewolf form. The older sister shifted back.

 

“Way to go Derek,” Cora applauded.

 

“Seriously, we were down the driveway when we smelled your wolf. I have to admit I was worried for the witch’s safety. I am more than pleasantly surprised at this turn of events.”

 

“Yes, yes. We can throw a party for Derek not killing me once the spider is out of my sight, please!” Stiles begged. Derek headed outside.

 

“If this is the effect you have on my brother, I think we should keep you forever!” Cora declared, heading outside as well.

 

Laura walked over to the couch and sat down, patting the seat beside her. Stiles got the hint and settled himself there.

 

“Derek has been having issues controlling his wolf,” Laura started to explain.

 

 _Understatement of the century_ , Derek thought. He was sitting on the front steps, in human form, unable to bring himself to face Stiles just yet.

 

“He was at the school all wolfed out when we first met,” Stiles remembered

 

Cora returned holding a bunch of bags. Clearly their shopping trip had been a successful one. She bypassed Derek and entered their home.

 

“Interesting. So that’s twice now that, somehow, he was able to keep control around you,” Laura thought out loud.

 

“Maybe they’re mates!” Cora shouted, heading up the stairs to bring her new stuff to her room.

 

Even with his human hearing, Stiles could hear Derek groan from outside.

 

“What’s that?” Stiles asked, curiosity peaked.

 

“It’s nothing, just a fairy tale werewolves tell themselves when they’re kids, about being destined for one specific person. A bit like human soul mates, except more intense. It’s not an actual thing,” Laura pushed a strand of her hair out of her face.

 

Before Stiles could respond, something caught his eye.

 

“Stiles?”

 

Stiles’ eyes were open wide. He gripped the couch cushion as he gawked towards the empty chair in front of him.

 

“Stiles?” Laura asked again.

 

Hearing Stiles’ heart beat pick up, Derek came back inside.

 

 

 

 


	10. Creatures

“It’s gone! Just pouf! You didn’t see it?” Stiles looked from Laura to Derek, expecting this to be a huge joke.

 

“Stiles,” Laura patiently started, “You know you’re here specifically to find something that we can’t see right?” Stiles nodded. “Well? What was it? What did it look like?”

 

Stiles shook his head. Half a year in the world of magick and this kind of stuff still surprised him. “It was an old man. A tiny old man. Lots of reddish hair covering his naked body. Big nose. Did I mention naked? No clothes.”

 

“Ok? A fairy? A gnome?” Derek requested.

 

“What? Not a fairy. It didn’t have any wings. Maybe a gnome? There was no pointy hat though.”

 

Stiles could have sworn there was a pop as the creature reappeared in the same chair it had been in before, “I’m no dirty gnome!” It disappeared.

 

Stiles pointed wildly at the empty chair. “It’s not a gnome.”  

 

“It’s back?” Laura questioned. At this point, Cora had joined the group and was standing beside Derek in the doorframe of the living room.

 

“No, well it was. It’s gone again. It just said it wasn’t a gnome…also he’s Irish. Well, he didn’t say that, but, you know, the accent.”

 

“Ok, so possibly a fairy,” Cora speculated.

 

“No! I said no wings.”

 

Derek rolled his eyes, “You really need to stop stereotyping everything.”

 

‘Fine. I’ll need to check in the books I brought with me.” Stiles hoped off the couch and left the room.

 

“Ok, so we’re not going to talk about how Derek wolfed out to save you instead of kill you?” Cora looked at everyone, a grin on her face. “No? Not going to talk about how adorable that was?” and with that, Derek tackled her to the floor. Stiles went up the stairs to the sounds of them play fighting…at least he hopped it was play fighting.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

There was a light knock at the door as Stiles flipped through the pages of his magickal creatures book.

 

“Oh, hello Mr. Hale. Did they tell you what I saw?”

 

“Yes, they have. I have lunch ready, nothing fancy, just sandwiches and chips. Do you want to join us and we can discuss it?”

 

“Sure!” Stiles slid off the bed and brought his book with him. He flopped it down on the kitchen table beside his plate and popped a chip into his mouth. Derek focused intently on his own food.

 

“So, I think it might actually be a fairy.” Everyone ate as Stiles talked, sometimes around his food. “A Grogoch to be precise. It’s Irish and really shouldn’t be outside of Ireland but there’s just too many similar characteristics with what you’ve been experiencing, what I’ve seen and what the book describes. It likes playing pranks.”

 

“Some pranks. How do we kill it?” Cora asked.

 

“What? No! No killing. I would like to have a conversation with him,” Stiles took a bite of his sandwich.

 

“Good idea, you can bore it to death,” Derek commented.

 

 “Now Derek, mind your manners. And don’t think that we won’t be discussing what happened earlier. Laura told me about the…spider incident.”

 

Derek shot his sister a look that accused betrayal.

 

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” the Spark took a gulp of his cola, “so Derek didn’t kill me. Isn’t that good? And normal?”

 

Mr. Hale smiled fondly at the naïve boy. “Yes. However, he didn’t kill you while shifted. This pack learns to control their wolf by finding an anchor. Derek’s anchor was…it no longer works. It appears that he may have found a new one. It’s important for us to discuss it.”

 

“Why are we telling the witch this?” Derek questioned, a little exasperated.

 

“I’m not a witch…”Stiles mumbled under his breath. The werewolves heard it but they chose not to acknowledge it.

 

“Son, it is useful for the pack to have an agreement with the witches. Don’t you think it would be beneficial if we were also allied with one of them?”

 

“Yeah, sure, but why this one. Can’t we pick a less annoying one?” Derek finished his sandwich and leaned back in his chair. Laura and Cora exchanged a knowing look.

 

Stiles shuffled uncomfortably in his own chair, “Can we get back to the grogoch?” Just as he said it, said creature appeared.

 

“Are ya gonna help me or what?” it asked.

 

“Help?”

 

“Help with what?” Mr. Hale asked Stiles, unaware of the guest.

 

“Oh, ok, yeah that sucks. Why didn’t you just go to the school? … Oh …”

 

The Hale family exchanged looks until it dawned on them that Stiles was speaking to the fairy and not to himself.

 

“Yeah…That shouldn’t be too complicated…Can’t you just pouf your way there?...Whoa, whoa! Chill! … You’re the idiot! Camping out at a werewolf house! … Don’t you dare!” Stiles bolted out of his chair and left the room running.

 

“What the hell?” Cora got up and followed, accompanied by her family.

 

“Safe to assume he pissed off the fairy,” Derek breathed.

 

They found Stiles in the guest room. His things were flying out of his bag propelled by an unseen force.

 

“Stop! Stop! STOP! NO! You don’t even look at that! Don’t you dare touch that book! Do not - ” Stiles leaped towards the bed and landed on one of his books, an older looking one. He clutched it to his chest and seemed to be struggling with something, jerking back and forth and kicking the air.

 

“This is hilarious. I like this,” Derek chuckled.

 

“Oh good, we found a way to make you smile,” Laura smacked his shoulder. “Should we maybe help him?”

 

“How do you propose we do so?” Mr. Hale asked, clearly amused as well.

 

 

Moments later, they were all back to being seated at the kitchen table. Stiles’ hair was sticking out in all directions and Derek couldn’t stop wondering if that’s what he would look like after s- no. He would not let his mind wander in that direction.

 

Stiles looked around nervously, as if expecting something to come flying his way. “You have a lovely guest in your home,” he bit his lip then, realizing what he was doing, he looked up at Derek and released it. Stiles explained how the grogoch had fallen asleep in a crate, which had then been transported to the States. Upon waking up, the fairy followed its senses towards magickal power in hopes of finding help to get back home. He stopped at the border, spotting the yellow fog. “He said it looked icky and didn’t want to cross it since he wasn’t sure what it was exactly.” The fairy had then doubled back and found the Hale house. He had been trying to get their attention in hopes on communicating with the witches. It had worked.  

 

The grogoch reappeared as Laura and Derek were putting the dishes away, “I want to go home!”

 

“Can we ship him back to Ireland?” Stiles asked Mr. Hale.

 

“I don’t see why not.”

 

“I want a comfy box! With mud and leaves. Some twigs would be nice.”

 

“Uh, ok, yeah I’m sure we can arrange that.”

 

It was decided that Mr. Hale would head over to meet with the Elders in order to discuss with them what Stiles had found. While he did that, Laura and Cora would head to town to look for some type of crate or box. Derek felt highly suspicious that his family was leaving him alone with Stiles on purpose.

 

“So how come you can’t be nice to me around other people? Kind of a douche move you know…or are you afraid of them seeing you smile? If this is some type of clichéd self-deprecating punishment because of the f -” Stiles stopped himself. Tension filled the room.

 

“I’m sorry,” Derek whispered, not making eye contact. Stiles was right, it was a douche move.

 

“Look, I get that we can’t let them know that we’ve been secretly hanging out because of the whole Romeo and Juliet thing,” Stiles was very good at using humor in awkward situations, but he wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “Wanna play video games?” he asked.

 

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing Gears of War and Call of Duty. Once the tension had dissipated, Derek mustered the courage to start a conversation. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” he asked without taking his eyes off the screen.

 

“There’s a surprising amount of options for witches. Mage? Emissary? Drrrrruid,” he answered, placing the most ridiculous amount of emphasis on the ‘r’. “Or maybe I’ll turn evil and go warlock on everyone’s ass and take over the world,” Stiles let out an evil laughter that got Derek chuckling.

 

“So what you’re saying is, you have no idea.”

 

Stiles clicked his tongue a couple of time in response. “What about you?”

 

“Thinking something in crime fighting.”

 

“That’s what my dad does! He’s the sheriff, you know. What does your dad do?”

 

“He’s an accountant. Want a coke?”

 

“Yeah!” Stiles waited for Derek to return before starting the next game. Derek reappeared and handed a bottle of coke to Stiles before opening his own. He sat back down, a little closer to Stiles than before. Neither of them mentioned it.

 

Stiles could feel the heat coming off of Derek’s body. “Man, you’re good at this game!” he commented as Derek took down yet another baddy.

 

“Werewolf reflexes.”

 

“Mmhmm.” Stiles wondered if Derek could use any of his werewolf abilities in the bedroom. Abilities or not, the guys hands…big and strong…they could wrap themselves around Stiles’ cock any time!

 

“Stop that!” Derek pleaded as Stiles died on screen.

 

“Hey, it’s only the second time I die.”

 

“I’m not talking about that…” Derek blushed.

 

“Then what?”

 

“You smell…aroused…stop it.”

 

Stiles’ blush easily surpassed Derek’s. “I’m a teenage boy! Can’t control my hormones!” Neither said anything further on the subject.

 

Mr. Hale returned with Chinese take-out for supper. He apologized for the lack of cooking effort but Stiles reassured him that take-out was more than acceptable. It was agreed that Stiles would stay until the next day, as originally planned. This way Stiles would be around if the special guest did anything else and would be present to guide him into the box Laura and Cora purchased for the shipment.

 

After dinner Stiles headed upstairs to call his dad. He reassured him that he was safe and the werewolves were quite friendly. He wished his dad would worry less. After the call he wondered if he should go take a shower. Some sort of commotion going on down the stairs pulled him out of his thoughts. He headed down to investigated the turmoil and could hear the sound of rushing water as well as Mr. Hale yelling at them to get out of the house.

 

“What’s going on?” Stiles asked.

 

“Water tank busted, basement is flooding and there’s a live wire cut and mixed in with the water,” Derek explained, grabbing Stiles’ arm to lead him outside.

 

Stiles shook himself free and went to take a peak at the basement.

 

“Stiles! Get out of here!” Mr. Hale ordered. He headed out the door as he continued, “I’ll cut the main line from outside, come on Stiles.”

 

However, Stiles felt pulled towards the basement. He could feel the movement of the water, and the energy flowing around him made his fingers tingle. He went down the stairs until he was only a couple of steps away from the water.

 

“Stiles!” yelled Mr. Hale as he went down to get him, but before he could reach the teenager, Stiles had extended his arms and the water went still.

 

“Recedo,” Stiles whispered. The water slowly moved away from Stiles and returned to the tank. Stiles took slow steps forward, feeling the push and pull of energy around him. Once the fuse box was clear, Mr. Hale moved forward and cut the power to the house.

 

When the water had returned to the tank, Stiles noticed a slash in the container. He placed his hands over it and repeated the word ‘calor’ over and over. He felt the vibrations of the metal as it heated up and melted, sealing the slash in the tank. He removed his hand and observed them. He had no burns or boils. A strange sensation on his face had him bring his fingers to it.

 

“Are you ok?” Mr. Hale asked.

 

“Yeah,” Stiles turned around, “Just a nose bleed.”

 

“Well, aren’t you something. Come on, let’s get you a tissue and go check on my family.”

 

They found the small group outside. Laura was in her shifted form, physically holding Derek back from entering the house. She let him go when she saw her dad and Stiles. Derek rushed over to the teenager who was holding a clump of Kleenex this his nose.

 

“Are you ok?” He cupped Stiles’ face and looked him over.

 

“Yeah, just a nosebleed. You?”

 

Derek nodded, “Yeah just shaken up.”

 

“Alright, it’s pretty late. We can fix the cable in the morning,” Mr. Hale decided.

 

“I vote we camp out in the living room,” Cora suggested.

 

“I second that,” Laura voiced.

 

“Approved. I’ll go get the sleeping bags and pillows, Laura could you go get the oil lamps from the shed?” Mr. Hale returned inside the house.

 

Derek let go of Stiles’ face. Stiles gave him a quizzical look.

 

“We’ll feel better if we’re all in the same room where we can easily sense each other,” he explained.

 

“Oh. Makes sense,” Stiles held the tissue to his nose as he turned around. “You!” He used his free hand to point furiously at the doorframe.

 

“I want to go home!” the grogoch said.

 

“We are working on it! Holy shit! What is wrong with you? Why would you do that to the people helping you? You realize it won’t be cheap for them to mail you back!” Stiles felt a hand be placed on the small of his back, he looked back to notice it was Derek.

 

“I want to go home.” The grogoch repeated.

 

“Working. On. It. Geez! Go play in the garden, my book says you like that,” Stiles felt exhausted. He checked his nose to see if he was still bleeding. The fairy disappeared. “Can I also be part of this living room sleep over?” He felt in need of comfort.

 

“Of course Dumb-dumb!” Cora smiled softly and headed inside. 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

The next day went much faster than Stiles would have liked. They packed up the grogoch and Mr. Hale brought him to the courier’s. The Hale family then walked Stiles to the border. Mr. Hale requested a meeting with the Elders to discuss giving Stiles special permission to cross their border.

 

“What good would that do?” Elder Morgana asked.

 

“We’ll think about it,” Elder Kain ended up deciding.

 

Stiles said good-bye and left with the Elders. He was brought to the summoning room to be debriefed. Near the end, he was questioned regarding which spell he used during the water incident.

 

“I don’t know…I just ordered it to retreat.”

 

“You ordered it?” Elder Gwaine repeated.

 

“Yeah, and visualized it…” Stiles made a like wave motion with his hand. Recognizing how stupid he looked he decided to sit on his hands to stop him from miming anything else.

 

“Very interesting. Would you accept to have private elemental lessons with me?” Elder Gwaine requested.

 

Stiles was taken aback with the fact that he was being asked and not ordered, “Yes, that would be cool.”

 

Elder Kain sighed. “Cool indeed,” he drawled, clearly unimpressed with Stiles’ choice of words. “You should head over to the nurse’s office and take your weekly potion. Then get some food and some rest. You will start your private lessons with Elder Gwaine after your regular classes tomorrow.”

 

The Spark smiled and got up. He did an awkward little bow before leaving the room.

 

He pulled out his phone as he headed to his dorm room. He texted Scott, he had so much to tell him! He also wanted to make sure Scott would lay off Derek and give the guy a chance.

 

“Sp – Stiles.” Jackson greeted him as he entered their shared room.

 

“Jackson. Guess who survived a weekend with werewolves,” Stiles dumped the contents of his bag onto his bed.

 

Jackson huffed. “Please. If people knew how docile the werewolves of this area were, they would be far less impressed with your little exploit,” and with that Jackson left the room before Stiles could question him.

 

_Why do I always feel like I’m being left out of some big secret?_ Stiles wondered.  

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

Derek’s obsession moved from Stiles’ lips to his fingers as the teenager moved them around practicing his spells. It was more than that though. There was something in the way that Stiles talked, that he seemed unphased by Derek’s mood swings, that he never pushed on subjects Derek was uncomfortable with…that he just let Derek be himself and still hung out with him.

 

They hadn’t kissed again and they were getting much less time alone, now that Stiles had special lessons at the end of the day. The Spark started talking about maybe doing something over the weekend. Derek starting thinking about asking him out on a date…that’s what normal people did right? Date? It could work. They could even be happy.

 

Unfortunately none of that would come to pass.

 

On Thursday, Stiles mentioned that he had permission to leave for the weekend. Derek left that day resolved to ask the guy out the following afternoon. Really. He would just man up and do it!

 

Stiles was sitting on his bed after supper, going through the assigned readings for his ancient languages class when a rush of cold entered his body. It was already a little chilly that evening so he was in his red hoody. The cold went straight through his layers of clothing to settle in his core. He shivered at the feeling, but couldn’t shake it off. Something was wrong. 

 

He didn’t understand where the feeling was coming from or how he knew, but something was wrong, at the Hale house. He jerked out of bed and ran out the room. He bolted down the hall and headed out of the building.

 

He headed directly for the forest, running as fast as he could. He didn’t stop when he had reached the border – it turned red the second it was breached but Stiles paid no mind to it.

 

Something was wrong.

 

Derek was in danger.

 

He took a running jump across the stream and just kept going. He almost fell a few times, stumbling on rocks and tree roots but he somehow managed to keep his balance.

 

When he got to the house, the werewolves were all outside, including Isaac, Boyd and Erica. They were in their shifted forms, back to the house and facing…something.

 

The creature’s back was to Stiles. It was wearing a tattered black cloak and was surrounded by a little cloud of cold fog. What was it with evil things and cloaks? It was slowly advancing towards the growling and snarling werewolves. It had an arm stretched out towards them.

 

_What do I do? What do I do! Latin? Old things love Latin._

 

“Adspicit me,” Stiles voiced, really happy for his ancient languages class.

 

The creature slowly turned around, revealing a luminescent skeleton under it’s cloak. _What the hell?_

 

“Stiles!” the teenager heard Derek yell, “Get out of here!”

 

“Uh…” Stiles really didn’t have a plan when he had taken the creatures attention. “Ave? Pacem?” He tried communicating peace. The creature instantly lost interest in him and turned back towards the werewolves.

 

_No, no, no._ Stiles felt around his pockets as if they would hold the answer. His hand settled on the small bottle containing the mountain ash. He ripped it out and poured its content on to the ground, picturing it forming a line between the werewolves and the creature, hoping that it would stop the two beings from touching each other.

 

“Did you seriously just trap us?” Cora yelled.

 

The skeleton’s hand tried to breach the barrier but it jerked back on contact. Stiles’ plan seemed to have worked…except now the thing was turning around and focusing its attention on the gangly teenager.

 

Stiles started shouting at it, commanding it, telling it that it had no business here and to be gone. He could feel something warm trickle down his face and he tasted copper but the creature had stopped moving so he continued commanding it to leave. It felt as if the air around him had thickened, a tingling sensation moved from his feet upwards and invaded his body. Stiles could swear the skeleton cocked its head at him, in a rather blasé, you’re-annoying kind of way before it disappeared, melting into the ground. 

 

The Spark fell to his knees, exhaustion coursing through his body. He took in a few deep breaths before looking up at the werewolves and noticing that they were all looking past him. Stiles turned around to see the Elders standing there.

 

“Really? You were just standing there? Thanks for helping! And you know what, shove your rules,” he could still taste copper. 

 

“Stilinski. You just ordered a Žiburinis to ‘get lost’ ”, Elder Seefa quoted one of the many things Stiles had yelled at the creature.

 

“I ordered a what? A zucchini?” Stiles was starting to feel light headed, since when had it been so hard to breathe?

 

“A forest spirit, not very kind. Very old, usually it just sleeps, something must have awoken it.”

 

“Yeah…my bad!” Isaac admitted.

 

Stiles turned back to the werewolves, remembering they were still trapped by the mountain ash. He flicked his wrist to clear it away.

 

“I do believe the spark has been flamed. Now all you need to do is listen to our instructions and learn what we have to teach you and you will be a very powerful witch indeed,” Elder Morgana commented.

 

Her words echoed in Stiles’ head. They were too loud and Stiles couldn’t quite understand them. The world around him shifted out of focus as he promptly passed out.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Stiles woke up sprawled out in a king sized bed. He stretched before scratching his chin, feeling a bit of stubble. He was feeling too groggy from the sleep to question it too much. With a bit of effort, he got up to look around the room. There was a large window, some dressers, the comforter was on the ground beside the bed. He absentmindedly picked it up and tossed it back on.

 

The floor felt cold under his feet as he exited the room and travelled down a spiral staircase. There was stiffness to the air and an impenetrable nothing around him: no living noise of the loft, no creaking from the metal, no wind outside.

 

Everything was silent.

 

It looked like he was in some sort of remodeled industrial building. He spotted a picture frame beside the couch and headed over to it. Stiles picked it up to see what was lying within it.

 

It was him.

And Derek.

 

They looked much older. They looked good. They looked happy.

 

Stiles placed it back down and looked around. The eerie quiet was starting to bother him. He wanted to speak, to call out to someone, anyone, but he couldn’t remember how.

 

He felt dazed and decided that perhaps he should just go back to bed.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Scott and the Hale pack were all in the waiting room of the hospital. Melissa McCall was doing her best to calm her son down.

 

The sheriff argued heatedly with the Elders as his son lay unconscious in a hospital bed. They were supposed to keep him safe! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! please don't hate me! Things had to get complicated at some point...my Beta said it would be fine since we all eat angst for breakfast.


	11. Complications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I haven't responded to all of your comments! I've been focusing on writing. That said, your comments seriously make my day! ♥‿♥

“Hi son.”

 

“Hey pops,” Stiles blinked a few times, adjusting to the light.  “Where am I? What happened?” As his eyes adjusted, he saw Elder Kain standing behind his father.

 

The sheriff sighed deeply, shaking his head, a gloomy expression settling on his face.

 

“You’re in the hospital,” he explained. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness for the last three days.”

 

“You channelled a lot of power ordering the Žiburinis. It took a toll on your body,” the elder added.

 

“Get out,” the sheriff’s words were dry and authoritative. He didn’t even turn around to look at the other man. Understanding, Elder Kain nodded and left the room. As the door opened and closed, Stiles caught a glimpse of Derek waiting in the hallway. The werewolf was sitting in one of those hard uncomfortable hospital chairs, elbows on his knees and head in his hands.

 

Stiles decided the guy could wait and focused his attention on his father.

 

The man looked tired, too tired.

 

“Please tell me you’ve been sleeping?”

 

“Stiles, you’re the one lying in a hospital bed, how ‘bout we worry about your health at the moment.”

 

“Dad!”

 

Mr. Stilinski shook his head. “There were…are a lot of things to take care of.”

 

Stiles mistakenly thought that this meant the hospital bill was quite high. He closed his eyes, trying to will the ache that was starting to pound throughout his head to subside.  

 

“Dad, we’ll figure it out. I can go back to regular high school. I know the boarding school is pricey. It’s ok. I can practice magick on my own.” A pained look crossed his father’s face.

 

“No, son. As much as I dislike the world that has chosen you, it’s where you belong. We do need to make some changes, but you don’t need to worry about that right now. Just rest.” The sheriff placed his hand on his son’s shoulder. 

 

“What’s Derek doing outside?” Stiles finally asked.

 

“Being stubborn…and probably listening to this entire conversation. I would arrest him if he wasn’t a minor.” Mr. Stilinski had seriously considered it but he didn’t want to give the poor kid a record... at least not for simply refusing to leave the hospital.

 

“Can I talk to him?” Stiles asked.

 

Outside the room, Derek’s head jerked to attention. He had indeed been listening to the conversation and was waiting for permission to join.

 

“No. You need to rest.” As if to prove his father right, Stiles couldn’t find the energy to argue and slipped into sleep.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Another day passed by. Stiles’ moments of consciousness were lasting longer each time.

 

Derek had still not been allowed in to the room. The blinds were shut so Stiles couldn’t even see him. He was going out of his mind lying in bed and not being to talk to the teenager sitting right outside the door.

 

When his dad had left to get him a glass of water, Stiles decided to speak to the empty room: “Go home Derek. I don’t even want to know how grouchy you’re going to be after staying in those chairs for this long! I’ll text you as soon as I can.”

 

He knew the werewolf had heard him but had no idea whether he had listened to him or not.

 

His question was answered when Derek entered the room.

 

“This is the opposite of going home! Pretty sure my dad will shoot you if he finds you in here. Nothing personal, he’s just very anti-werewolf at the moment.”

 

“He’s talking to a nurse right now,” Derek explained.

 

“How’s it going grumpy cat?”

 

 “I anything, I am a canine, not a feline…you should have stayed at the school, what were you thinking? It could have killed you!” Derek wanted to give Stiles a less-than-impress look but didn’t have the heart for it.

 

“You’re welcome,” Stiles rolled his eyes. “Seriously, I’m fine. My body just wasn’t used to handling that much power. I just need to practice more. It’s not the end of the world!”

 

“You’re still an idiot for running towards danger.”

 

“Maybe I was just channelling my inner-Derek,” Stiles smirked. “Seriously, I’m fine. Go home. I’ll text you when I can, my dad is holding my phone hostage at the moment.”

 

“Just promise you’ll rest.”

 

“This mother-hen side of you is exasperating!” Stiles was starting to get sick of resting, he really was feeling much better and wanted things to go back to normal.

 

“You’re dad stopped talking to the nurse,” Derek focused on the sounds outside of the room to find out where the sheriff was.

 

“Go!”

 

Not knowing how to say good-bye, Derek simply left the room without looking back. At least an argumentative Stiles meant a healthy Stiles.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Another day went by before the Spark was discharged. His father drove them home, still refusing to give Stiles his phone back. Apparently they needed to have an important discussion first.

 

 

When they got to the house, Stiles had refused his dad’s help to walk from the car to the his home, insisting multiple times that he was fine. From the entranceway, it was easy to spot a pile of boxes in the hallway. He peaked inside one of them to find some of his dorm room stuff.

 

“I thought I was going to stay at the boarding school?” he inquired.

 

“Let’s just go have a seat in the living room and we can talk about what is going to happen.”

 

Mr. Stilinski took sat in his favourite recliner as Stiles took his spot on the couch.

 

“Keep in mind that what I’m about to tell you is in your best interest,” the sheriff started. Stiles didn’t exactly like the sound of that but managed to remain quiet, awaiting further information.

 

“Stiles, as your dad it is my job to keep you out of harms way. It’s also my job to make sure that you get the best out of life. It’s just not safe for you to stay at the boarding school with the werewolves in such close vicinity.”

 

“No, dad! The werewolves had nothing to do with it, they’re super nice! They wouldn’t hurt me, it was this evil spirit, skeleton, thing –” Mr. Stilinski raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. Stiles stopped talking only because he felt bad for putting his dad through so much stress.

 

“On top of the fact that it is obviously not a safe environment, I know you’re miserable there. I’ve spoken to that Kain-fellow, there’s private school in Oakland – ” he paused, allowing his son time to respond but Stiles remained silent, petrified of where this conversation was going. “All their students who decide to go to university, instead of pursuing the follow the craft, up in one of those fancy top of the line colleges. Kain has already contacted them and apparently you’re a big deal now…so they’re offering a full scholarship for you to attend. It’s not a boarding school so you would get to come home every night. I’ve applied for a transfer at work, should hear back about it any time now.”

 

Five days.

 

Stiles had spent five days in the hospital and his father had already managed to put all of this into play.

 

He wanted to protest. He wanted to say that it was safe here; that what had happened was entirely his fault for disobeying the rules. That things were getting better on the social front. That he didn’t want to leave. His life was here, in Beacon Hills.

 

The look on his father’s face stopped him from saying anything. The man looked old, older than he should. “I’m going to go take a shower,” was all the boy managed to reply.

 

He got up and went up the stairs. He didn’t need to be a werewolf to know that he smelled of sterile hospital air.

 

He entered the bathroom and locked the door behind him. As the water heated up, Stiles undressed and threw his clothes in the hamper. He checked the temperature with his hand before stepping under the water.

 

He sat in the tub and let the water fall over himself. He was leaving. Leaving his friends, leaving his home…the home his mother had lived in…and all because he was incapable of thinking before acting!

 

After his shower, he went straight for his bedroom. His cell phone was waiting for him on his desk. He didn’t have the heart to check it. He fell on his bed and stared at the ceiling.

 

 

 

He woke up the next morning with a little more conviction than the night before. He grabbed his cell phone from his desk and decided to ignore the impressive amount of texts that had been waiting for him. He dialled Scott’s number.

 

It was only after a lengthy conversation with his best friend that Stiles texted Derek a meeting place.

 

Stiles [11:03am]

\- Lookout point in the reserve, north side, 1pm?

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

“I’m leaving.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

“I know,” Derek continued to look at his feet until Stiles placed his hand on his shoulder.  The hand slowly crept upwards to rest on his cheek. Derek finally looked up, making eye contact.

 

They met at the lookout point and had walked in silence until they found a desolate section in the reserve.

 

“We’ll keep in touch, right?” Stiles asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Derek…”

 

Derek didn’t want to hear anything Stiles had to stay. The boy was leaving and there was nothing they could do about it. He leaned in and took Stiles lips with his own. They kissed softly, tongues licking each other’s lips from time to time. The hand that was on Derek’s cheek moved to the back of his head, fingers intertwining in his hair. Stiles draped his free arm around Derek’s shoulders. Derek brought his hands to Stiles’ lower back, holding the other boy close to him.

 

Derek tentatively placed his hands to Stiles’ backside. He lifted Stiles’ up. Their lips parted for an instant as Stile’s gasped in surprise. The Spark locked his legs around the werewolf’s waist and Derek slowly lowered himself to the ground, bringing Stiles with him. He sat cross-legged, Stiles wrapped around him.

 

Stiles unlocked their lips, “How did you just do that?” He looked around.

 

Derek shrugged, “Muscles?”

 

“Damn!” Stiles returned to their kiss, holding Derek tightly, afraid that if he would let go, the werewolf would disappear. He mapped out Derek’s mouth with his tongue, intent on remembering it. Derek slipped his hands under Stiles shirt, feeling the warm skin of the boy’s back.

 

They rearranged their legs and Stiles pushed Derek back so that the werewolf was now lying in the grass, Stiles on top of him. From time to time, Derek would let go of that Spark’s lips to kiss down his jaw and start sucking gently on the his neck. This sent shiver’s down Stiles’ spine until the younger teenager couldn’t take it anymore and attacked Derek’s mouth with his own. It went on like that for a bit, the kiss varying from lazy to passionate.

 

Feeling himself slip ever closer to madness, Stiles ended their make out session and slumped to Derek’s side, arranging one leg over Derek’s and resting his head on the werewolf’s collarbone. Stiles shut his eyes for a bit, willing his body to calm down. He wanted nothing more than to push things further but it felt too much like they were saying farewell forever and he just couldn’t handle that.

 

He needed to believe that they would have plenty of time to develop a normal relationship, go on dates and make out a lot more and finally, one day, go all the way. It would be perfect. It would happen. They would make it work.

 

Derek drew circles on Stiles’ back while watching the clouds in the sky.

 

“An ice cream cone,” Derek voiced.

 

“What?” Stiles lifted his head to look at the werewolf.

 

“The cloud,” Derek used his free arm to point at the sky. “It looks like an ice cream cone.”

 

Stiles shifted to lie on his back beside Derek. Derek brought his hand to Stiles’ and they locked fingers.

 

“We’ll keep in touch,” Stiles told himself more than anything.

 

“Yeah,” Derek pulled Stiles to his chest and wrapped his arms around him, hoping that if he clung tightly and long enough, the world would forget about them and they would be free to be together.

 


	12. Life

Stiles learned the hard way that sometimes life just isn’t fair and things don’t always work out just like you would want them to.

 

During the first couple of months after his move, Stiles sent and received a handful of texts from Derek, but these soon faded out of existence and Stiles found himself living his life without the werewolf who had given him his first kiss.

 

Stiles, however, kept in touch with Scott. The McCalls visited on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He was able to stay in the loop on that front. He knew when Scott and Isaac broke up, knew that Lydia was still stubbornly attached to Jackson for some unknown reason, and he found out when Scott had finally decided to officially join the Hale pack. In all their conversations, Stiles never asked about Derek, preferring to pretend like that whirlwind part of his life had never happened. It was simply easier this way.

 

Derek’s social skills slowly improved. As he accepted the new pack members, they accepted him. He graduated from high school and proudly got into university. He secured a small but decent flat with the family’s money and moved away. He returned to Beacon Hills every three months for pack meetings. His sister, Cora, constantly teased that she would move in with him when it was her turn to go off to college. He vehemently refused this idea on a constant basis.

 

When it was time for Stiles to graduate from high school, he and Scott applied at all the same universities with the intention of attending the same one and be reunited for good. They partied over Skype when they both received their acceptance letters to Berkeley. After a considerable amount of planning and budgeting, Scott, Stiles and (to Stiles immense disbelief) Lydia found an apartment to share. It was agreed that it would be far easier for the three supernatural beings to live together and split rent as opposed to living in university residence and possibly have their roommates walk in on them practicing magick…or turning into a werewolf…or screaming at the top of their lungs.

 

After two months of university, Stiles broke up with his high school sweet heart. The long distance relationship had been taking its toll and it quickly became apparent that they were very different people now that they had entered the college scene.

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

After a full day of classes, Stiles headed over to his favourite on-campus coffee shop to refuel on caffeine before hitting the books. Midterms were coming up and he was determined to get good grades.

 

He listened to his music while in the line up and popped one of the earphones out to place his order. He stuck it back in and bobbed his head along while waiting for the sweet coffee goodness. His cup was handed it to him; he nodded to say thanks and turned around to head up. He was stopped by someone in the line up grabbing his elbow. He turned to find none other than Derek Hale.

 

“D- Derek?” Stiles yanked his earphones out.

 

“Hey.”

 

The young men stared at each other. Derek moved forward as the line advanced.

 

“Um, I’ll wait for you outside,” Stiles pointed towards the exit and headed in its direction. The place was small and quite crowded, but Stiles really needed a moment to pull himself together. This was not the time to have a panic attack!

 

He waited outside, back to the coffee shop. He placed his hand over his chest and whispered something. The heat emitting from his hand entered his body and calmed him down by distracting his mind. It was something he had started doing a year ago. It didn’t look too odd to any one witnessing it and it only required a two-word enchantment.

 

The physical feeling distracted his thoughts from the mental anguish he received every time the door to the shop opened and closed.

 

“Hey,” Derek said a second time.

 

Stiles smiled as casually as he could and held on to his coffee cup with both hands. “Hi.”

 

Silence invaded the space between them.

 

“I don’t remember you being this quiet,” Derek finally commented.

 

“Oh yeah, that hasn’t really changed, you just caught me off guard! You go to Berkeley? Too cool! Do you have time to catch up? We should catch up? Maybe find a bench or something, chill out in the lovely autumn air and what not.”

 

Derek snorted, “Yup, your brain to mouth filter definitely hasn’t changed. Wanna go sit in the quad?”

 

“Yeah, yeah good idea.”

 

They walked over and only spoke again when they were sitting down. 

 

“Still wearing hoodies I see,” Derek broke the ice.

 

“Don’t be hating! These things are warm and comfy! Plus it’s a uni hoodie! Gotta represent!”

 

Derek rolled his eyes.

 

“So how have you been? I’m assuming you’ve gotten the big bad under control?” Stiles questioned.

 

“Yeah, meeting you had a huge impact on me…”Derek fiddled with his cup.

 

“Wow? Seriously? Is it cause I talked so much?”

 

“Past tense?” Derek raised an eyebrow. It had been because Stiles simply had let him be himself. Pain and all.

 

Stiles grunted, “Shut up!” He took a sip of his coffee. “You know, I had a huge crush on you when I was at the boarding school. And you were such an ass about it!”

 

“Was not!” Derek had the decency to look a little offended.

 

“You so were! Your emotional constipation gave me emotional whiplash with the whole he kissed me, he hates me, he kissed me again thing.”

 

Derek couldn’t get himself to look at Stiles, “Yeah, I guess I was a bit of an ass. Sorry.”

 

“Bah! All is forgiven grumpy cat! Oh man, I am slowly remembering all the nicknames I had for you…”

 

“Don’t you dare!”

 

“I’ll keep them to myself if you play nice,” Stiles grinned.

 

“At least they can’t be as bad as that one time you referred to me as Juliet.”

 

Stiles burst out laughing, “I totally did do that, didn’t I! And look at us now, keeping the whole chick flick vibe going…not that Romeo and Juliet is super chick flick, it is pretty bad ass with all the people dying.”

 

“I’m going to regret asking this but how do we have a chick flick vibe?”

 

“You know, meeting up at a coffee shop, on campus, years after we’ve last seen each other in high school! At least it’s not like you asked Scott where my hang out spots were or anything.”

 

Derek went beet red.

 

“Holy shit! Did you ask Scott? Did he tell you it was favourite coffee spot? Have you been secretly going there in hopes of bumping in to me?”

 

The colour did not fade from Derek’s face.

 

“Derek Hale! You stalker!” He punched Derek’s shoulder then shook his hand to get rid of the pain that colliding with the mass of muscles had caused.

 

They talked about their programs; Derek was majoring in Forensic Science with a minor in Criminal Psychology and loved it. Stiles had decided to become an emissary, “But not one of those cryptic sneaky kinds, I’m going to be a hands-on kind of dude!” Since emissaries needed to keep their identities a secret, he was studying to become a librarian. “I can be like Giles from Buffy! The elders all told me I could be so much more, which is so insulting to emissaries! I want to be, like, a druid-emissary. All wise and powerful!”

 

They lingered a bit after they both finished their coffee, neither of them really wanting to leave the other’s company. The sun was starting to set and a chill was settling in the air.

 

“Do you…do you want to come back to my place for a beer?” Derek offered before he could stop himself. “Wait! Are you legal?”

 

Stiles groaned at the question, “In Canada I am?”

 

“We are not going to Canada for a beer,” a smiled pulled at the corner of Derek’s mouth.

 

“I won’t tell anyone if you don’t!”

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----             

 

 

Against his better judgement, Derek handed Stiles a beer and sat on the sofa.

 

“You have a Wii! Wanna play Mario Kart?” Stiles asked, spotting the console.

 

They continued chatting while playing. Stiles talked about Scott’s new girlfriend, a kitsune by the name of Kira. He asked if supernatural beings generally gravitated towards each other. He asked how Laura was doing. They discussed how Cora and Isaac were attending the same Fashion Design school together. Stiles asked if anything was going on there but only received a growl in response to his inquiry.

 

“How weird is it that I’m now roommates with my old dormmate’s girlfriend? Remember Jackson? You should have seen his face when he saw me again! Priceless. So how is it being away from your family and pack?”

 

“I go back every three months so it’s not that bad.”

 

“Whoa, isn’t that super expensive?”

 

“Nah, especially now that gas prices have gone down. I rather cough up the dough than seeing them only on holidays. It’s a pack thing, I need to be near them from time to time. It’s odd not being surrounded by their scent.”

 

“I get that, well not the scent part. Has my scent changed? Is it something that changes with age?”

 

Derek shook his head, “No, it’s still the same.”

 

 Out of nowhere, Stiles got up. “I got a tattoo!” he exclaimed as if he had just remembered. He pulled off his shirt.

 

Derek’s breath hitched as the pale freckled torso was exposed. Stiles was slim but toned. The witch pointed at the side of his ribs, “See?”

 

“I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar,” Derek read aloud. “You seriously got a Firefly quote tattooed?”

 

“Uh, yes! Cause it’s awesome! And fitting…levitating is kind of my thing. It’s the first real spell I mastered.”

 

Derek smiled as he remembered Stiles levitating the leaf that one day in the woods.

 

“I got one to,” Derek mentioned, pulling his own shirt off and turning around. Between the broad muscular shoulders a pattern of swirls was tattooed on the tanned skin. “It’s a triskelion…it’s a family thing,” he explained.

 

“Cool.” Stiles approached and traced the ink with his finger. Derek closed his eyes, feeling the smooth movements of the digit slide around his back. He took a deep breath before turning around to face the younger man.

 

Stiles chuckled, “This is a bit ridiculous…us standing around your living room shirtless.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Stiles took a step forwarded and decided to just go for it. He draped his arms around Derek’s neck and brought their lips together. It was like two pieces of a puzzle that had been separated from one another. Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist; feeling the warm, smooth skin. He thought his mind was embellishing the touch, he could swear he felt a prickly sensation where his skin was in contact with the witch’s. It didn’t hurt; it felt nice, like a trembling tickle.

 

When they broke out of their chaste kiss, Derek noticed something unusual.

 

“Uh, Stiles?” Derek looked around them. They were floating five inches off the ground.

 

“Oh shit!” They fell to the floor with a gentle thud. “Sorry! Levitation…”

 

“Yeah, I know, kind of your thing…it’s ok, just wasn’t expecting it. Does that uh…does that usually happen?”

 

“Yes…no…I usually have excellent control, seriously…it’s just that, uh…” Stiles was a little embarrassed, “I levitate things by bending gravity and when I was kissing you I felt like it was gravity or something that brought us together and wow could I have said anything cheesier? I’m just going to go dig my own grave now.” _Smooth Stilinski. Real smooth._

 

Derek smiled and gave Stiles a quick peck before bending over to grab his shirt. Stiles grabbed his own and checked his phone for the time.

 

“Crap how did it get to be so late, I have to run. Got some studying to do.” He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a pen. He grabbed the pad of post-it notes lying beside the couch and scribbled down his number. He placed in on the coffee table and shrugged. “You know, if you want to catch up some more…” He put his shirts on and headed to the door. He shoved his feet into his shoes and turned to face Derek. “So, text me or something.” He scratched the back of his head.

 

“Wannagoonadate?” The words come out of Derek’s mouth at an incredible speed. He coughed and tried again, “Do you want to go on a date? With me?”

 

“Yeah! Yes,” Stiles nodded like only he could, “I’m not free tomorrow but I’m all yours the night after that?”

 

“Ok, that works. Cool.”

 

“Cool,” Stiles gave Derek a soft smile before heading out. 

 

A fainted scent of shortbread and earth lingered in the room. Derek wished it was stronger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to change the rating of this story to fit the next chapter


	13. Finally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! Sorry this took so long, I had a crazy week. 
> 
> Last chapter! Thanks to everyone who posted comments, they were all so lovely and kept me going :) Special thanks to those who were constantly commenting - I loved seeing your reactions from one chapter to the next.
> 
> Thanks to my beta Kalyppso for dealing with my stupid English mistakes and giving me her opinion.

Stiles stood in front of his closet; towel wrapped around his waist, hands on his hips.

 

He had talked Derek into agreeing to a date at a diner – Derek had wanted something a little fancier, but the stress had Stiles’ craving a milkshake and curly fries. He also figured that a comfortable laid-back atmosphere would help him relax.

 

So here he was, an hour before his date with no idea what to wear.

 

Lydia walked by Stiles’ room and paused at the open door.

 

“I’m nervous,” Stiles admitted.

 

“Dark jeans, fitted graphic tee,” she advised, closed the door and walked away.

 

Ok. Yes. This he could pull together. He grabbed a t-shirt with the British flag printed on it, looked at it through squinted eyes before throwing it back into his closet. He took another out, this time with a T-Rex trying to do a push up…no…lame. It was thrown back into the closet. A band t-shirt? What if Derek didn’t like the chosen band? This was way too hard. Stiles decided to put on a pair of pants before going back to the hunt for the perfect shirt. The pants brought on the dilemma of which underwear to put on…were they even going to be seen?  _Pull it together Stilinski_!

 

A knock on the door pulled Stiles’ attention away from the clothes. “What! Sorry…what? You can come in,” he ran his hands through his hair, pulling on it to express his frustration.

 

“Hey bro,” Scott entered the room. “Soooo…date with Derek…Derek Hale…”

 

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----                    

 

 

After finding something wrong with all of his graphic tees, Stiles showed up wearing a blue baseball shirt. It was a little tight around his biceps but Lydia told him that was a good thing. Derek walked towards the diner smiling, wearing his leather jacket and a black, three-button shirt. Stiles noticed him from the corner of his eye but pretended not to have seen the other man until they were face to face.

 

“Hi,” Stiles smiled.

 

“Calm down,” Derek could hear the fast-paced heartbeat. “I’m not going to eat you, remember?” Stiles shook his head, having issues understanding that this was actually happening.

 

They went inside and Stiles tried to decide if it was ok to dip his curly fries into his milkshake on the first date. Or was that more of a third date type of thing? You’re supposed to keep your idiosyncrasies hidden on the first date, right?

 

They sat across from each other at a booth and when Derek ran his fingers through his hair, Stiles noted that he wasn’t the only nervous one.

 

“So, uh…I haven’t dated in a while,” Derek revealed, unsure why he was admitting this.

 

“Oh? Pretty sure it’s a faux-pas to talk about exes on a first date,” Stiles smirked, showing that there was no real judgement.

 

“Pretty sure a proper first date would be at an Italian restaurant, not a diner.” 

 

“You say that, but wait until you try their milkshakes! Orgasmic. If you really want to, you can bring me to some swanky restaurant on our second date.”

 

“Second date?” Derek raised an eyebrow. Stiles blushed.

 

The werewolf extended his hand across the table, inviting Stiles to take it. Stiles took the offering one, letting his thumb rub up Derek’s.

 

The waitress came over and bit her lip to suppress a giggle when she noticed their handholding.  She politely took their orders and walked off.

 

“So,” Derek cleared his throat as a means of starting conversation. “Do you know what kind of species you want to be an emissary for?”

 

“Werewolves, obviously! Best friend is one of them.”

 

“Do you have a pack in mind?”

 

“Not really…there’s a process to find one but that comes later.”

 

 

\-----*ALPHABETAOMEGA*-----                    

 

 

Derek walked Stiles home. The younger man was in full DC vs Marvel rant when they got to his building.

 

“I would invite you in but…Lydia and Scott…” Stiles looked at his shoes.

 

“You know, I don’t live too far from here, we could head over to my place for a night cap?” Stiles beamed at the suggestion.

 

 

Derek let go of Stiles’ hand to unlock his door. Once inside, Stiles leaned against the doorframe while the older man hung up their jackets.

 

“This is the part where you kiss me,” Stiles advised.

 

“Oh? Is it?” Derek fainted innocence.

 

“Yup,” Stiles nodded vigorously but stopped when Derek cupped his face. They kissed energetically, imaginary boundaries and constricting doubts disappearing as they pulled moans from each other’s mouths. Derek could smell the arousal rolling off of Stiles. Stiles could feel Derek’s arousal growing through his jeans. The werewolf broke the kiss and took a step back, only to ogle the man before him.

 

Stiles would finally be his.

 

He had to fight his wolf for control, the scent and taste of the witch before him was testing his sanity. He returned his mouth to man’s lips, savouring every moment as his hands moved wildly under Stiles’ shirt. Going from his stomach, to his hips, to his back, wanting to feel every inch, every curve.

 

He needed more. Needed to feel, taste and smell. He pushed and pulled at the shirt in his way. “Alright, alright!” Stiles whispered, pulling his shirt off with no actual protest. The slimmer man then placed his long fingers on the hem of Derek’s shirt, “Flamma Caeruleum.” Bright blue light made its way around the piece of clothing and quickly moved upwards, eating the material in its path. It felt cold and tingly against Derek’s skin. Once it reached the collar and finished its job consuming the shirt, the blue light vanished, leaving Derek wide-eyed and shirtless.

 

Stiles licked his lips, snapping Derek out of his daze.

  
The broader man brought his mouth back to the witch’s neck, alternating between licks and bites. He moved even lower, worshiping the man’s collarbone before bending his knees and kissing down the middle of his breast line. Gingerly, Derek nosed over to the right nipple, testing a tentative flick of his tongue to judge Stiles’ reaction. The gasp he received pushed him forward, grazing his teeth against it before sucking for only a brief moment. He returned to his decent down the freckled skin. His hands felt the toned abs and his lips quickly followed.

Now on his knees, Derek hooked his thumbs on the seam of Stiles’ jeans, pulling them down to allow his mouth access to the right hipbone. He sucked and licked the skin, enjoying the taste as well as the sound of heavy breathing and occasional gasps his work was being rewarded with.

  
He looked upward to see that the man he was worshipping had his eyes shut tight.

  
“Stiles?” he asked, almost pleading for permission to an unspoken question.

  
“Oh dear god, everything, yes, whatever you’re going to ask the answer is yes!” 

  
Derek got back up and grabbed Stiles, pulling him over his shoulder before walking towards his bedroom

  
“Wow, ok, this- wow! Yes, I am so onboard for being man-handled...werewolf-handled…whatever. Why are we still not in your bed!” Stiles babbled. 

  
  
Derek placed his hand on the small of Stiles’ back in order to gently lower the man on to his bed.

  
He leaned forward to resume their kiss, tongues battling each other for control, both losing the world around them.

 

“Less clothes, more naked!” Stiles ordered.

 

They worked at unbuttoning their jeans between kisses and gasps. 

  
Soon Derek was standing without a shred of clothes in in front of Stiles, who was also naked on his bed, prompt up on his elbows.

  
“Lube?” Stiles asked.

  
Derek produced a bottle from the lower drawer of his desk. Stiles grabbed it and popped the cap off.

 

“What’s the rush?” Derek asked, amused.

 

“I have been waiting years for this! Screw poise and any further foreplay!” 

  
Stiles coated two of his own fingers with the slick substance. He sat back against the wall and spread his legs manoeuvring his hand between them and teasing his hole before slowly inserting the tip of one finger.

  
It was all Derek could do to stand in front of this show and witness its unfolding.

  
Stiles leaned his head back shutting his eyes and he inserted his entire finger.  
It wasn’t long until he was able to place the second one inside himself. He jerked his hips upwards and thrust his digits in and out, scissoring himself from time to time. He had clearly done this before.

  
Derek stepped backwards until he hit his desk, hands flying to grab hold of the wooden structure, nails digging into it violently scrapping the surface to control his urges.  
  
  
“Now,” Stiles rasped out. “Derek, please, I want you.”

  
Later on, Derek would try to recall the events that followed and hate himself for failing. It was all a blur of skin and sweat, moans and desperate pleas for more. Fortunately, he would be graced with many opportunities to build further memories.

  
“Stiles, Stiles I’m so close,” Derek informed between thrusts. Stiles was lying on his stomach, hips propped up by a pillow placed beneath them.

  
“No”, the witch responded to the warning, causing Derek’s hands to clutch tightly at the toned hips.

  
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked, trying hard to stop his movements but only managing to cease his brutal pounding and instead slowly slide in and out of the tight offering.

  
“I...I want to come with you,” Stiles begged.

  
“Stiles...” Derek was going to explain that this was real life, it wasn’t some planned out porn film. If one of them came first it was alright, the other would still be taken care of.

  
“Please Derek!” Stiles was aware of how ridiculous his request was but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

  
The plea moved the werewolf to painstakingly pull out. The older man braced himself against the wall. “Take me,” he all but ordered.

  
“Derek?” Stiles asked, dazed but still aware that his lover hadn’t been properly prepared for such entry.

  
“I’m a werewolf, I can handle it.”

  
Stiles breath hitched, he got on his knees behind the shifter and lined himself up. He remembered to at least apply some lube.

  
“Are you sure?”

  
“Stiles! I swear if you don’t shut up and –” the man was cut off by Stiles ramming in, hands flying upwards to grasp Derek’s wrists as he did so.

  
“Fuck...fuck, Derek, fuck.” Stiles braced his hand against the triskelion tattoo, allowing Derek time to get used to the intrusion. The werewolf slowly rocked his hips.

 

“Move,” Derek requested. “T-tell me when you’re close,” he added, already near the edge himself.

  
“Oh…oh fuck I’m already close…” Stiles hips took on a life of their own, thrusting upwards and invading Derek’s body to new depths.

  
Derek moved his right hand to grab his cock, but Stiles beat him to it. A few quick tugs and Derek was spilling in Stiles hand. He clenched his muscles as he came, bringing Stiles over the edge as well.

 

The witch gently pulled out and collapsed on the bed.

 

Derek stayed against the wall for a few more seconds before manoeuvring around Stiles and leaving the room.

 

“You better be getting us a cloth to wash up and not running off to have some big weird crisis!” Stiles shouted after him.

 

Derek returned, damp cloth in hand. “Do I look like the type of guy who would have a big crisis?” Stiles only grunted in response.

 

With no help from Stiles, Derek cleaned them up as best he could. He folded the cloth and wiped the bit of cum that had landed on the wall.

 

“Sorry,” Stiles apologised, “was a little too busy to focus on the aim.”

 

Derek shrugged and tossed the piece of fabric away.

 

Stiles stretched out on the bed like a cat, absent-mindedly scratching his stomach.  Derek settled beside him, arm wrapping around the other’s waist.

 

Stiles turned his head towards Derek, “Hi.”

 

“Hi.” Derek gently kissed Stiles’ forehead. “Not saying that wasn’t amazing – because it was – but after the levitating kiss two days ago I was expecting something else.”

 

“What?” Stiles pretended to be horrible offended. “Me using cold fire to burn your shirt off wasn’t good enough? Man, I’m going to have to up my game if I’m to keep you interested”

 

Derek chuckled and pulled Stiles closer to him “Pretty sure time has proven that it’s impossible for me to lose interest in you and your annoying mouth.” He placed another gentle kiss, this time on Stiles’ shoulder. “Cold fire? That’s what that was?”

 

“Yup,” Stiles snuggled his head in the crook of Derek’s neck.

 

“Most people are afraid of lighting a candle around me! You weren’t worried that I would have some crazy reaction to the fire because of my past?”

 

“Oh shit! Did not think of that…” Stiles looked horrified.

 

Derek kissed the top of his head. He felt safe with Stiles. “Shower?”

 

“Mmm, yes. Shower. Then food.”

 

“We just ate!” the werewolf chuckled.

 

“We ate two hours ago! Then had strenuous activities,” Stiles argued. “Can you make pancakes?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Ok. Shower. Then pancakes. You can lick the syrup off of my lips like when we were teenagers.” Stiles made no attempts towards getting up.

 

“You have an insane memory. You’re staying here tonight, right?” Derek asked.

 

“If I’m invited…although not sure if that's acceptable on a first date.”

 

“You’re staying here tonight,” Derek ordered.

 

“Yes sir!”

 

“Ok…shower.”

 

“Yup.”

 

Neither moved, far too comfortable in each other’s embrace. Stiles’ lips found Derek’s.

 

 


End file.
